Word
Мой любопытный брат догадывается о сюрпризе.
Meaning
My curious brother is guessing about the surprise.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Мой любопытный брат догадывается о сюрпризе.
брат
brother
мой
my (мой, моя, моё) / mine
о
about (о, об, обо)
любопытный
curious
Questions & Answers about Мой любопытный брат догадывается о сюрпризе.
Why does this sentence use о сюрпризе instead of just translating 'the surprise' as a direct object?
The verb догадываться (to guess or suspect) requires the preposition о (about) followed by the prepositional case. Unlike the English phrase 'guessing the surprise', Russian requires you to say that he is guessing about it.
How would I say he is guessing 'about something' using the кое- pronouns from this lesson?
You would use кое-что (something). However, there is a special rule for these pronouns: when they are used with a preposition, the preposition splits the pronoun in two. Instead of о кое-чём, the preposition steps inside to make кое о чём. The sentence would be: Мой брат догадывается кое о чём.
Why does догадывается have the reflexive -ся ending if he isn't guessing himself?
Not all verbs with the -ся suffix mean you are doing an action to yourself. Often, it just slightly changes the meaning of the base verb. While гадать means 'to guess' (like a random guess in a game) or 'to tell fortunes', adding the prefix до- and the suffix -ся creates догадываться, meaning 'to figure out', 'to suspect', or 'to form an educated guess'.
Why use the imperfective догадывается here rather than the perfective догадается?