Breakdown of Слушатели, сидящие в сквере, ничего не слышат.
не
not
в
in / to (direction)
сидеть
to sit
слышать
to hear
Questions & Answers about Слушатели, сидящие в сквере, ничего не слышат.
Why does the participle сидящие use the -ящ- suffix instead of -ющ-?
Active present participles are formed from the third-person plural (they) form of the verb. Сидеть (to sit) is a Type 2 conjugation verb, so the plural form is они сидят. You drop the final -т and add the participle ending. Since the stem ends in -я, it uses the -ящ- suffix. If the verb were Type 1, like читать becoming читают, it would use -ющ-.
Why does сидящие end in -ие?
Participles act like adjectives, meaning they must agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case. Here, the participle describes слушатели (listeners), which is in the nominative plural. Therefore, it takes the standard nominative plural adjective ending -ие.
Why are there commas before and after сидящие в сквере?
In Russian grammar, a participle clause (the participle plus any dependent words, like в сквере) must be separated by commas if it comes directly after the noun it describes (слушатели). If the sentence order was flipped to put the clause first (Сидящие в сквере слушатели ничего не слышат), the commas would disappear.
The verb is слышать, so why is the plural form слышат and not слышают?