Breakdown of Никто не думает, что наша собака толстая.
не
not
собака
dog
наш
our (наш, наша, наше)
думать
to think
что
that (conjunction)
никто
nobody
толстый
fat
Questions & Answers about Никто не думает, что наша собака толстая.
Why does the sentence use both Никто (no one) and не (not)?
In Russian, double negation is mandatory. Whenever you use a negative word like никто (no one) or ничего (nothing), you must also put не before the verb. Literally, this sentence translates to "No one doesn't think...".
Why does the verb думает take the third-person singular form?
The negative pronoun никто (no one) always takes a singular verb in the third person, exactly like "he" or "she". This is very similar to English, where we say "no one thinks" rather than "no one think".
Is the connecting word что pronounced the way it is spelled?
No, что is almost always pronounced as што (shto). Here it acts as the conjunction "that" to connect the two halves of the sentence: "No one thinks" and "our dog is fat".
Why do наша and толстая have those specific endings?
They are describing the word собака (dog), which is a feminine noun. Because the dog is the subject of the second part of the sentence, these words must match it by taking the feminine nominative endings: -а for наша and -ая for толстая.
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