Question 1

Why is the relative pronoun in the form который?

Accepted Answer

Который translates to "which" or "that". It must match the gender and number of the noun it refers back to. Since двигатель (engine) is masculine and singular, we use the masculine singular form который. It is in the Nominative case here because it acts as the subject of the second half of the sentence: the engine is the thing that worked (работал).

Question 2

I learned that ещё means "still" or "more." What does it mean here?

Accepted Answer

While ещё often means "still" or "more," it is also used with past time expressions to emphasize how long ago something happened. In this sentence, ещё в девятнадцатом веке translates naturally to "as far back as" or "back in" the nineteenth century.

Question 3

Why are the endings -ом on девятнадцатом and -е on веке?

Accepted Answer

This is the Prepositional case. In Russian, when you say that an event happened in a specific century, year, or month, you use the preposition в followed by the Prepositional case. The phrase девятнадцатый век (nineteenth century) changes to в девятнадцатом веке.

Question 4

Двигатель ends in a soft sign. How do we know it is masculine?

Accepted Answer

Nouns ending in the suffix -тель are almost always masculine. This suffix is often used for tools, machines, or professions (like учитель for teacher). Because it is masculine, the words describing it also take masculine forms: старый, который, and the past tense verb работал.

Это старый двигатель, который работал ещё в девятнадцатом веке.

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