Breakdown of Свидетель не помнит, когда он открыл сейф.
не
not
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
помнить
to remember
открыть
to open
когда
when
свидетель
witness
сейф
safe
Questions & Answers about Свидетель не помнит, когда он открыл сейф.
Why is there a comma before когда?
In Russian, you always put a comma before the question word (like когда, где, or что) when it connects the main sentence to an indirect question or statement. This is a strict punctuation rule you will see throughout this lesson.
Does the word order change when a question becomes an indirect question like this?
No! In English, we change the structure (e.g., the direct question "When did he open?" becomes the indirect "when he opened"). Russian is much easier: you just take the exact wording of the direct question (Когда он открыл сейф?) and glue it to the first half of the sentence with a comma.
Why does the sentence use the perfective verb открыл instead of the imperfective открывал?
The witness is trying to remember one specific, completed event in the past (the exact moment he successfully opened the safe). We use perfective verbs for single, finished actions with a result. If we used открывал, it would mean he was in the process of opening it, or that he used to open it regularly.
Since свидетель ends in a soft sign (-ь), how do we know its gender?
Свидетель (witness) is a masculine noun. Even though nouns ending in a soft sign can be either masculine or feminine, you can find clues in the rest of the sentence: the pronoun он (he) and the masculine past-tense verb открыл both point back to it.
What case is сейф in, and why didn't its ending change?
Сейф is in the Accusative case because it is the direct object (the thing being opened). However, because it is a masculine inanimate noun (a non-living object), its Accusative form looks exactly the same as its basic Nominative dictionary form.
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