Questions & Answers about Здесь появляются новые дома.
The current lesson is about the reflexive pronoun 'себя'. Where is it in this sentence?
It is hiding at the end of the verb! The suffix -ся in появляются originally comes from себя. While себя is used as a separate word to mean 'oneself' in different cases, attaching -ся to a verb creates a reflexive verb. This often indicates an action that happens spontaneously or on its own. So the houses simply 'appear'.
Why does the verb end in '-ются' instead of just '-ют'?
Because it is a reflexive verb. The base verb ending for 'they' is -ют. Since -ют ends in the consonant т, we add the full -ся to make it reflexive. If a verb form ends in a vowel, like the 'I' form (я появляюсь), we use the shorter -сь instead.
Why is the plural of 'дом' written as 'дома'? Doesn't the '-а' ending usually belong to feminine words?
You are right that -а is the standard ending for feminine nouns, but дом is a masculine noun with a special, irregular plural form. Instead of taking the normal -ы ending for plurals, it takes a stressed -а in the nominative case. So дома here just means 'houses'.
Why is the subject 'новые дома' placed at the end of the sentence?
In Russian, the newest or most important information usually goes at the end of the sentence. By putting новые дома last, the speaker emphasizes exactly what is appearing. If the sentence was ordered as Новые дома появляются здесь, the emphasis would change to mean 'It is here that the new houses are appearing'.
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