Questions & Answers about Лимон не сладкий.
Why is there no word for 'a' or 'is' in this sentence?
Russian does not use articles like 'a' or 'the'. Also, in the present tense, the verb 'to be' (like 'is' or 'are') is almost always left out. So, you literally just say Лимон не сладкий (Lemon not sweet).
Why does the word сладкий end in -ий?
Сладкий is an adjective describing лимон. Because лимон is a masculine noun (it ends in a consonant), the adjective must also be in its masculine form to match it.
Why doesn't сладкий use the standard masculine adjective ending -ый?
This happens because of a very important Russian spelling rule: you can never write the letter ы after the letter к (and a few other consonants like г and х). Because of this rule, the standard -ый ending changes to -ий.
Could I put не at the beginning of the sentence instead?
The word не (not) must be placed exactly in front of the word it negates. Since we are negating the sweetness, не goes directly before сладкий. If you said Не лимон сладкий, it would mean 'Not a lemon (but something else) is sweet.'
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