Breakdown of Ребёнок медленно слезает со стула.
стул
chair
ребёнок
child
медленно
slowly
со
from / off of (a surface)
слезать
to get off / to climb down
Questions & Answers about Ребёнок медленно слезает со стула.
Why does the sentence use со instead of с for "off"?
We use со instead of с to make pronunciation easier. When the following word starts with certain consonant clusters, like the "st" sound in стула, adding the "o" stops the consonants from blending together awkwardly.
Why do we use со to say the child is getting "off" or "from" the chair, rather than из?
In Russian, the preposition for "from" depends on the preposition used for "to" or "on". Because you get onto a chair using на (на стул), you must get off it using its exact opposite, which is с or со. If you had gone into something using в, you would use из to come out.
Why is the word for chair стула here instead of just стул?
The preposition с (or со) meaning "from" or "off of" always requires the Genitive case. Since стул is a masculine noun ending in a consonant, we add "-а" to make it стула in the Genitive.
The verb слезает translates to "is getting off". What exactly does this verb mean literally?
слезает comes from a verb root meaning "to climb" (лезть), combined with the prefix с- which indicates downward or offward motion. So literally, the child is "climbing down" from the chair. Russian often uses highly descriptive action verbs like this where English just says "getting off".
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