Questions & Answers about Близнецы гордятся своей матерью.
Why is the word for mother матерью here instead of something like 'матью'?
The noun мать is irregular. In all oblique cases (meaning everything except the nominative and accusative singular), it adds the suffix -ер- to the stem. Since it is a feminine noun ending in a soft sign, its instrumental ending is -ью, making the full word матерью.
Why are своей матерью in the instrumental case?
The verb гордиться (to be proud of) always requires its object to be in the instrumental case. Even though we say 'proud of' in English, you do not use a preposition in Russian here, you simply use the instrumental case.
Why do we use своей instead of их (their) for 'their mother'?
Свой is the reflexive possessive pronoun, meaning 'one's own'. Whenever the possessor is also the subject of the sentence (here, the twins are proud of their own mother), you must use a form of свой instead of standard possessives like его, её, or их.
Are there other words that add -ер- to the stem like мать does?
Yes, the only other noun that follows this exact pattern is дочь (daughter). In the instrumental case, just like матерью, it takes the exact same endings and becomes дочерью.
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