Breakdown of Лектор, говорящий в микрофон, — наш новый профессор.
новый
new
наш
our (наш, наша, наше)
говорить
to speak, to talk
в
in / to (direction)
профессор
professor
лектор
the lecturer
микрофон
the microphone
Questions & Answers about Лектор, говорящий в микрофон, — наш новый профессор.
How do we form the participle говорящий in this sentence?
It comes from the verb говорить (to speak). To form an active present participle, take the "they" form of the verb (говорят), drop the final -т, and add the appropriate ending. Since it modifies the masculine nominative noun лектор, we add the masculine nominative ending -щий, giving us говорящий.
Why are there commas around the phrase говорящий в микрофон?
In Russian, when a participle phrase (a participle and the words attached to it) comes directly after the noun it describes, it must be separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. If the phrase came before the noun, these commas would be dropped.
Why do we use the accusative case in в микрофон instead of the prepositional case?
The preposition в takes the accusative case when it shows direction ("into"). When you speak into a microphone, your voice is directed into it, so Russian uses the accusative в микрофон rather than the prepositional case (which would imply being statically located inside it).
What is the purpose of the dash (—) before наш новый профессор?
The dash acts as the verb "is" in this sentence. In Russian, when both the subject (лектор) and the core of the description (профессор) are nouns in the nominative case, a dash is used to link them in the present tense because the verb "to be" is omitted.
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