Questions & Answers about Южный город красивый.
Why is there no Russian word for "is" in this sentence?
In Russian, the present tense of the verb "to be" is almost always skipped. The sentence literally translates to "Southern city beautiful", but we naturally understand it as "A southern city is beautiful".
How do we know it translates to "A" southern city and not "The" southern city?
Russian does not have articles like "a", "an", or "the". You have to figure it out from the context of the conversation. Depending on what you are talking about, this exact sentence could also mean "The southern city is beautiful."
How can we tell that город (city) is a masculine noun?
In Russian, a noun's gender is usually determined by its last letter. Because город ends in a hard consonant (д), it is a masculine noun.
Why do the words южный and красивый both end in -ый?
These are both adjectives describing город. Since город is masculine, any adjective attached to it must also be in its masculine form. The standard masculine ending for adjectives in the nominative case is -ый.
Could this sentence just mean "A beautiful southern city"?
Grammatically, yes, it could just be a descriptive phrase. However, word order usually tells us if it's a full sentence. Because красивый comes after the noun instead of before it, it acts as the main point of the sentence, meaning the city is beautiful.
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