Questions & Answers about Домашний телефон не работает.
Why is "home" translated as домашний instead of just using the noun дом?
In Russian, you can't usually stack nouns next to each other like "home telephone" in English. Instead, you must change the describing noun into an adjective. Домашний is the adjective form of дом (house or home) and means domestic or pertaining to the home.
Why does домашний end in -ий rather than the typical masculine -ый?
Does the verb работать (to work) apply to machines in Russian just like it does in English?
Yes, it does! You can use работать for people doing their jobs, as well as for devices, electronics, or systems functioning properly.
Since this lesson is about the Genitive plural, how would you say "of the home telephones"?
Because домашний is a soft-stem adjective, its Genitive plural ending is -их. The masculine noun телефон takes the standard -ов. So, "of the home telephones" becomes домашних телефонов.