Word
Тот, кто не верит в богов, не понимает эти мифы.
Meaning
He who does not believe in gods does not understand these myths.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Тот, кто не верит в богов, не понимает эти мифы.
не
not
кто
who / whoever
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
понимать
to understand
Questions & Answers about Тот, кто не верит в богов, не понимает эти мифы.
Why do we use both Тот and кто instead of just translating 'he who' directly?
In Russian, 'the one who' or 'he who' is typically expressed with a pair of pronouns: the demonstrative Тот (that one) in the main clause, and the relative кто (who) in the sub-clause. Think of it literally as 'That one, who doesn't believe in gods, doesn't understand these myths.'
If this sentence means 'anyone who doesn't believe', why are the verbs верит and понимает in the singular?
Both Тот and кто are grammatically masculine singular pronouns, so any verbs attached to them must also be singular. If you wanted to make it plural ('Those who don't believe...'), you would use the plural correlative pair: Те, кто не верят... не понимают...
Why is богов used after в here? Doesn't the preposition в usually take the Prepositional case?
When using the verb верить (to believe), the preposition в takes the Accusative case to express 'to believe in [someone/something]'. Because бог (god) is an animate noun, its Accusative plural form matches the Genitive plural, which is богов.
If верит в богов uses the animate Accusative, why does понимает эти мифы use what looks like the Nominative case?