Breakdown of Эта пустыня — самое жаркое место на острове.
место
place, seat
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
на
on, at / by (transport) / to (a place) / to (in answer to)
жаркий
hot (weather)
самый
most
остров
island
пустыня
desert
Questions & Answers about Эта пустыня — самое жаркое место на острове.
Why is it самое жаркое instead of just самый жаркий?
The superlative word самый (the most) and the adjective жаркий (hot) must both match the gender, number, and case of the noun they describe. Because место (place) is a neuter noun in the nominative case, both words take their neuter forms: самое and жаркое.
Since пустыня (desert) is feminine, shouldn't the adjectives be feminine too (самая жаркая)?
Good catch! But the adjectives belong to место (place), not пустыня. The sentence says "This desert is the hottest place," so самое and жаркое have to agree with the neuter noun место.
Why is there a dash (—) after пустыня?
In Russian, when you drop the present tense verb "to be" (is/am/are) and connect a noun subject directly to another noun phrase, you often use an em dash. It essentially acts as the word "is" in this sentence, visually linking пустыня (desert) to место (place).
Why do we use на instead of в for "on the island"?
In Russian, islands are considered open surfaces, so you use the preposition на (on) rather than в (in) to indicate location. Because it answers the question "where?", it takes the prepositional case, adding an -е to the end of остров to make на острове.
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