Breakdown of Я помню историка, которого мы вчера встретили в музее.
я
I
мы
we
музей
museum
помнить
to remember
в
in / to (direction)
вчера
yesterday
встретить
to meet (pf)
который
which / who / that (relative pronoun)
историк
historian
Questions & Answers about Я помню историка, которого мы вчера встретили в музее.
Why does историк change to историка here? Doesn't that ending mean it's in the Genitive case?
It looks like the Genitive case, but it is actually the Accusative case! The historian is the direct object of the verb помню (I remember). Because историк is a masculine, living being (animate), its Accusative ending is -а, which happens to look exactly like its Genitive form.
Why is the relative pronoun которого instead of just который?
The pronoun must match the noun it replaces (историк) in gender and number, so it stays masculine singular. However, its case depends on its job in its own part of the sentence. We met him, making him the direct object of встретили. Just like the noun it replaces, the masculine animate Accusative form of который is которого.
In English, we would often just say the historian we met. Can I leave out которого in Russian?
No, Russian never skips this connecting word! You must always include the relative pronoun (a form of который) to link the two phrases. You also must always place a comma right before the clause that contains it, which is a strict punctuation rule in Russian.
Why do we use встретили instead of встречали for we met?
встретили is the perfective form of the verb. You use it here because the meeting was a single, successfully completed event in the past. If you used the imperfective встречали, it would imply you met him repeatedly or regularly.
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