Question 1

Why do we use Тот, кто here instead of just Кто or Он, кто?

Accepted Answer

In Russian, when you want to say 'he who' or 'the one who' in a general sense, you use the correlative pair тот, кто. The first part (тот) acts as a placeholder in the main sentence, and the second part (кто) introduces the relative clause. You cannot use the pronoun он for this kind of general statement.

Question 2

If we don't know the gender of the hero, why do we use the masculine Тот?

Accepted Answer

When making general statements, rules, or proverbs that apply to anyone regardless of gender, Russian defaults to the masculine singular Тот, кто. You would only use Та, кто if you were specifically referring to a female, like 'The woman who...'.

Question 3

Why do победит and заберёт translate to the future tense when there is no future helper word like будет?

Accepted Answer

Both победить (to defeat) and забрать (to take) are perfective verbs, meaning they focus on a completed result. When you conjugate a perfective verb using standard present-tense endings, it automatically creates the simple future tense. The helper word будет is only ever used with imperfective verbs.

Question 4

Why don't the words чудовище and сокровище change their endings, since they are the direct objects of the sentence?

Accepted Answer

Both чудовище (monster) and сокровище (treasure) are neuter nouns. In Russian, neuter nouns in the Accusative case (the case used for direct objects) keep the exact same form as their Nominative dictionary form. That is why their endings do not change here.

Тот, кто победит чудовище, заберёт древнее сокровище.

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