Breakdown of Если урожай большой, то это радость для фермера.
это
this / it is
большой
big
для
for
радость
joy
если
if
фермер
farmer
то
then (in that case)
урожай
harvest
Questions & Answers about Если урожай большой, то это радость для фермера.
Why do we use то in the second half of this sentence, and is it mandatory?
The word то translates to "then" in an "if... then..." sentence (Если... то...). It acts as a bridge connecting the condition to the result. It is very common in Russian, but it is optional. You could simply drop it and say Если урожай большой, это радость для фермера and it would mean the exact same thing.
Where is the verb "to be" in this sentence? The English translation has "is" twice.
In Russian, the present tense of the verb "to be" (is/am/are) is almost always left out. So, "the harvest is big" is just урожай большой (harvest big), and "it is a joy" is just это радость (this joy). You just put the subject and its description side by side.
Why is the word for farmer spelled фермера instead of фермер?
It is in the genitive case because it comes after the preposition для (for). Whenever you want to say "for someone" using для, the noun that follows must be in the genitive case. Since фермер is a masculine noun ending in a consonant, we add -а to the end.
The word радость (joy) ends in a soft sign. How do we know its gender?
The word радость is a feminine noun. A great trick at this level is that almost all Russian nouns ending in -ость are feminine. This is a very common ending used for abstract concepts, similar to "-ness" or "-ity" in English.
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