Breakdown of Они украшают комнату деревянными игрушками.
они
they
комната
room
игрушка
toy
украшать
to decorate
деревянный
wooden
Questions & Answers about Они украшают комнату деревянными игрушками.
Why is there no word for "with" before деревянными игрушками?
In Russian, when you use an object as a tool or instrument to do an action (like decorating with toys, or writing with a pen), you put that object in the instrumental case without a preposition. If you used the preposition с (with) here, it would mean "along with" or "accompanied by" the toys!_
How do the endings for деревянными игрушками work in the instrumental plural?
For the noun игрушка (toy), you drop the -а and add the standard plural instrumental ending -ами, making игрушками. For the adjective деревянный (wooden), the ending changes to the plural instrumental adjective ending -ыми, giving us деревянными.
Why is the word for room written as комнату here instead of its dictionary form комната?
Because the room is the direct object receiving the action of being decorated. That means it needs to be in the accusative case. For feminine nouns ending in -а like комната, the accusative ending changes to -у.
I see украшают ends in -ют. Is this a standard verb conjugation?
Yes! This is the imperfective verb украшать (to decorate). It follows the regular Type 1 conjugation pattern. Since the subject is Они (They), we drop the -ть and add -ют to get украшают (they decorate).
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