Breakdown of Мы обычно отдыхаем после первого финала.
мы
we
отдыхать
to rest
обычно
usually
первый
first (1st)
после
after
финал
final
Questions & Answers about Мы обычно отдыхаем после первого финала.
Why are the words for "first final" in the Genitive case (первого финала)?
The preposition после (after) always forces the noun that follows it into the Genitive case. Since the masculine noun финал becomes финала, the ordinal number первый (first) must agree with it in gender, number, and case. It takes the masculine Genitive ending to become первого.
If I just learned "on the first floor" as на первом этаже, why don't we use первом here?
The ordinal number's ending changes depending on the grammatical case triggered by the preposition. The preposition на for location requires the Prepositional case, giving us the -ом ending in на первом. However, our sentence uses после, which strictly requires the Genitive case. Therefore, the ordinal number must take the Genitive ending -ого.
I keep wanting to pronounce the "g" in первого. Is it a "g" sound?
No, it is pronounced like a "v". In Russian, the Genitive endings -ого and -его for masculine and neuter adjectives or ordinal numbers are always pronounced with a "v" sound instead of a "g". So, the ending in первого sounds like "-ovo".
Why does this sentence use the imperfective verb отдыхаем?
The adverb обычно (usually) tells us this is a regular, repeating habit. In Russian, habitual or repeated actions always require the imperfective aspect, rather than a perfective verb which would focus on a single, one-time result.
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