Breakdown of Брат читает стихи Пушкина лучше, чем я.
брат
brother
я
I
читать
to read
стихи
poetry, verse
чем
than / the (in comparisons)
лучше
better
Пушкин
Pushkin
Questions & Answers about Брат читает стихи Пушкина лучше, чем я.
Why does the surname Пушкин change to Пушкина here?
Пушкина is in the genitive case to show possession, meaning Pushkin's or of Pushkin. Russian surnames ending in -ин (like Пушкин) or -ов decline using a special mix of noun and adjective endings, but for the masculine genitive, they take the standard noun ending -а.
Why is the word order стихи Пушкина rather than putting his name first?
Unlike English, which usually places the owner before the noun (Pushkin's poems), Russian typically shows possession by putting the owned object first, followed immediately by the owner in the genitive case (стихи Пушкина).
Could I say лучше меня instead of лучше, чем я?
Yes! In Russian, you can compare things in two ways: using чем followed by the nominative case (like чем я here), or by dropping чем entirely and putting the second person in the genitive case (меня). Both mean better than me and are completely natural.
Why do we use the nominative я at the end instead of an object pronoun?
Because we used the conjunction чем (than), the pronoun must match the case of the noun it is being compared to. The brother (брат) is the subject (nominative case) doing the reading, so the person he is compared to (я) also stays in the nominative. The sentence literally means better than I [read].
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