Question 1

Why does the verb шьётся have a -ся at the end?

Accepted Answer

This is the core of our current lesson! Adding -ся to an imperfective verb can give it a passive meaning. Without it, она шьёт платье means "she sews a dress" (active). By adding -ся, the object (платье) becomes the grammatical subject: платье шьётся means "the dress is being sewn." The dress isn't sewing itself; it is receiving the action.

Question 2

I know the verb "to sew" is шить. Why is there a soft sign (ь) in шьётся?

Accepted Answer

Шить has a slightly irregular conjugation where a soft sign appears in the stem before the endings. For "he/she/it", the active form is шьёт. To make it passive, you simply take that third-person form and attach -ся to the very end: шьёт + ся = шьётся. You might recognize this same pattern from other short verbs like пить (пьёт) and бить (бьёт).

Question 3

Could we use a perfective verb here instead of the imperfective шьётся?

Accepted Answer

No, and this is a strict rule: when you use the -ся ending to create a passive meaning, the verb must be imperfective. It focuses on the general process or an ongoing action. If you wanted to emphasize a completed result (perfective passive), Russian uses a totally different structure involving short participles, such as как сшито это платье (how this dress has been sewn).

Question 4

Why is the word order как шьётся это платье instead of как это платье шьётся?

Accepted Answer

Both are grammatically correct and mean the same thing. However, in Russian, verbs often come before the subject in dependent clauses like this one, especially when the verb describes a general process happening to the subject. It simply sounds a bit more natural to a native speaker than keeping strict English subject-verb word order.

Я хочу знать, как шьётся это платье.

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