Word
Вы можете сделать короткую стрижку?
Meaning
Can you do a short haircut?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Вы можете сделать короткую стрижку?
вы
you (plural)
сделать
to do (perfective) / to make (perfective)
мочь
to be able to
короткий
short
Questions & Answers about Вы можете сделать короткую стрижку?
Why does the sentence use the perfective verb сделать instead of делать?
You are asking the hairdresser to complete a single, specific action with a finished result: your new haircut! The perfective сделать focuses on getting that result. If you wanted to ask if they generally do short haircuts in this salon as a rule, you would use the imperfective делать.
Why do the words for short haircut end in -ую and -у (короткую стрижку)?
They are the direct object of the verb сделать (to make/do), so they must be in the Accusative case. The dictionary forms are the feminine words короткая and стрижка. In the Accusative case, feminine adjectives change their ending to -ую and feminine nouns change to -у.
I thought the verb for can is мочь. Where does the 'ж' in можете come from?
The verb мочь has an irregular conjugation where the consonant changes. It uses a г for the 'I' and 'they' forms (я могу, они могут), but changes to a ж for all the other forms: ты можешь, он/она может, мы можем, and вы можете.
In English I would usually ask 'Can I get a haircut?'. Is it more natural in Russian to ask 'Can you do a haircut?'?