Breakdown of Мы останавливаемся у магазина.
магазин
store, shop
у
at, by
останавливаться
to stop, to come to a halt
Questions & Answers about Мы останавливаемся у магазина.
How does the verb останавливаемся connect to the current lesson about себя?
The verb suffix -ся is actually a shortened, built-in form of the reflexive pronoun себя (meaning "oneself"). While in English you simply "stop", in Russian you literally express "we stop ourselves" here. You must use this reflexive suffix when the action reflects back onto the subject.
Could we say Мы останавливаем у магазина without the -ся suffix?
No, that would sound incomplete. Without -ся, the verb means to stop something else (like stopping a car or a person). Because you are stopping your own motion, you have to use the reflexive form to show you are stopping yourselves.
Why does the verb end in -мся here?
The regular "we" form of this verb is останавливаем. To make it reflexive, we attach the suffix directly to the end. Because останавливаем ends in a consonant (м), we use the full suffix -ся. If the conjugated verb ended in a vowel (like the "I" form останавливаюсь), we would use the shorter version -сь.
Why is the word for shop spelled магазина instead of магазин?
The preposition у (meaning "by", "at", or "near") always requires the following noun to be in the Genitive case. For a masculine word ending in a consonant like магазин, the Genitive case adds an -а to the end.
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