Breakdown of Сегодня мы будем готовить макароны вместо фасоли.
мы
we
готовить
to cook
быть
to be
сегодня
today
вместо
instead of
макароны
pasta
фасоль
beans
Questions & Answers about Сегодня мы будем готовить макароны вместо фасоли.
Why does the word for beans end in -и here (фасоли)?
The preposition вместо (instead of) always takes the Genitive case. The dictionary form for beans is фасоль, which is a feminine noun ending in a soft sign. To make it Genitive, that soft sign changes to -и, resulting in фасоли.
In English, 'beans' is plural. Is фасоль plural in Russian?
No, in Russian фасоль is a singular, uncountable noun, much like 'rice' or 'corn' in English. You use the singular form to talk about a batch of beans as a food type.
Why use the two-word future tense будем готовить instead of the perfective приготовим?
Using the imperfective будем готовить focuses on the process or the planned activity of cooking ('we will be cooking pasta'). You could use the perfective приготовим if you wanted to emphasize completing the meal, but the imperfective is very natural for stating general plans for the day.
What case is макароны in?
It is in the Accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb (the thing being cooked). Because макароны is an inanimate plural noun, its Accusative form is identical to its Nominative dictionary form.
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