Breakdown of Кто расследует дело о пропавших деньгах?
кто
who / whoever
о
about (о, об, обо)
деньги
money
дело
matter, business
пропасть
to disappear
расследовать
to investigate
Questions & Answers about Кто расследует дело о пропавших деньгах?
How is the participle пропавших formed here?
Пропавших is the active past participle of the perfective verb пропасть (to disappear or go missing). To form it, we take the past tense пропал, drop the -л, and add the suffix -вш- followed by the standard adjective ending. This gives us the base form пропавший (having disappeared).
Why does пропавших have the -их ending in this sentence?
Participles decline exactly like adjectives to agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case. Here, it describes деньгах (money), which is always plural and is in the prepositional case because of the preposition о. Therefore, the participle takes the prepositional plural ending -их.
Why does the sentence use дело о (the case about) instead of the genitive case for "the case of"?
In English, we say "the case of the missing money," which might tempt you to use the Russian genitive case. However, in Russian police and legal contexts, a case or investigation is usually phrased as a "case about" something, which requires дело о followed by the prepositional case.
Where does the -у- come from in the verb расследует?
The infinitive is расследовать (to investigate). It belongs to the common class of verbs ending in -овать or -евать. When conjugated in the present tense, that suffix drops out and is replaced by -у- before the personal endings, making it он расследует.
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