Breakdown of Капли воды упали с крыши.
вода
water
крыша
roof
упасть
to fall (perfective)
с
off / down from (a surface)
капля
drop
Questions & Answers about Капли воды упали с крыши.
Why does the sentence use с for "from" instead of из?
It's because of the location preposition used for "roof". If you are on a roof, you use на (на крыше). In Russian, prepositions work in pairs: if location uses на, the "from" direction must use с. (If location uses в, the "from" direction uses из).
Why is воды in the Genitive case here?
It translates to "of water." To connect two nouns like "drops" and "water", Russian uses the Genitive case on the second noun to show what it is made of, rather than using a separate word for "of". The nominative вода changes to воды.
Why use the perfective verb упали instead of the imperfective падали?
Упали focuses on the completed action and its result—the drops fell and hit the ground. If the sentence used падали, it would emphasize the background process, meaning the drops "were falling" over a period of time.
The preposition с takes the Genitive case, so shouldn't крыша change to крышы?
Normally, feminine nouns ending in -а change to -ы in the Genitive. However, the 7-letter spelling rule says you can never write the letter ы after ш (and г, к, х, ж, ч, щ). Because of this rule, you must use и, making it крыши.
Learn Капли воды упали с крыши and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free