Breakdown of Слушатели, отдыхающие в сквере, обсуждают лектора.
отдыхать
to rest
в
in / to (direction)
обсуждать
to discuss
лектор
the lecturer
слушатель
the listener
сквер
the small park
Questions & Answers about Слушатели, отдыхающие в сквере, обсуждают лектора.
How exactly is the participle отдыхающие formed from the verb отдыхать?
To form an active present participle, you start with the 3rd person plural ("they") form of the verb. For отдыхать (to rest), that is отдыхают. You drop the final -т and add the participle ending -щий (or the plural -щие). So, отдыхаю + -щие gives us отдыхающие.
Why does отдыхающие end in -ие here?
Participles decline just like adjectives, meaning they must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they describe. Here, the participle describes слушатели (listeners), which is the subject of the sentence and therefore in the nominative plural. To match it, the participle takes the nominative plural adjective ending -ие.
Why is the phrase отдыхающие в сквере separated by commas?
In Russian, when a participle clause (the participle plus any extra words attached to it, like в сквере) comes immediately after the noun it modifies, it must be enclosed in commas. If we flipped the word order to put the clause first (Отдыхающие в сквере слушатели...), the commas would disappear.
Why does the direct object лектора end in -а?
Лектор is the direct object of the verb обсуждают (are discussing), so it needs to be in the accusative case. Because it is a masculine, animate noun (representing a living person), its accusative form matches its genitive form, taking the ending -а.
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