Breakdown of Пушкин — великий поэт, который любил русскую природу.
любить
to love, to like
природа
nature
русский
Russian
поэт
poet
который
which / who / that (relative pronoun)
Пушкин
Pushkin
великий
great
Questions & Answers about Пушкин — великий поэт, который любил русскую природу.
Why is there no special ending on the name Пушкин here, and how would it change if he were the direct object?
Пушкин is in the nominative case here because he is the subject of the sentence. Surnames ending in -ин act like standard masculine nouns in the nominative. However, in the accusative case (direct object), animate surnames ending in -ов, -ев, and -ин take the ending -а, making it Пушкина.
Why is there a dash after Пушкин?
In Russian, the present tense of the verb to be (is, am, are) is generally omitted. When both the subject (Пушкин) and the descriptive noun (поэт) are in the nominative case, a dash is used to connect them and replace the missing verb.
Why is который in the masculine nominative form here?
The word который acts as the subject of the second clause (who loved), so it needs to be in the nominative case. It takes the masculine singular form to match the noun it refers back to: поэт.
Why do we use русскую природу instead of русская природа?
These words are the direct object of the verb любил (loved), so they must be in the accusative case. The feminine nominative adjective русская changes to русскую, and the feminine noun природа changes to природу.
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