Breakdown of Мы тратим треть бюджета на рекламу.
мы
we
на
for (a purpose or goal)
реклама
advertisement
тратить
to spend
треть
third (fraction, one third)
бюджет
budget
Questions & Answers about Мы тратим треть бюджета на рекламу.
Since "a third" is the direct object here, why hasn't треть changed its ending for the accusative case?
The word треть is a feminine noun ending in a soft sign (often called a 3rd declension noun, like ночь or вещь). For these feminine nouns, the accusative case form is always exactly the same as the nominative form.
Why is the budget in the genitive case (бюджета)?
In Russian, fraction words like треть (a third), половина (a half), and четверть (a quarter) are treated as nouns. To say "a third of something," the thing being divided must be in the genitive case, just like when you use words of quantity like много or мало.
Why do we use the preposition на here, and what case is рекламу?
The verb тратить (to spend) pairs with the preposition на plus the accusative case to show what you are spending money or time on. Since реклама (advertising) is a feminine noun ending in -а, it changes to рекламу in the accusative case.
Why use the imperfective verb тратим instead of the perfective equivalent?
тратим (we spend) is imperfective, which shows that this is an ongoing habit or a general policy. If you were talking about spending a third of the budget on one specific, completed project in the future, you would use the perfective future tense: потратим (we will spend).
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