Breakdown of Наши жизненные пути расходятся.
наш
our
путь
track / path (route, journey)
расходиться
to disperse
жизненный
life's, vital
Questions & Answers about Наши жизненные пути расходятся.
The word пути is the plural of путь, which is a masculine noun. Does it follow normal rules for masculine plurals here?
In this specific sentence, yes. The nominative plural пути takes the standard -и ending for a soft-stem masculine noun (just like словарь becomes словари). However, путь is taught as "anomalous" because in most other cases—like the Genitive, Dative, and Prepositional—it suddenly drops its masculine pattern and uses the endings of a feminine noun ending in a soft sign (like ночь).
Can we tell that путь is masculine just by looking at the modifying words наши жизненные?
No. In Russian, adjectives and possessive pronouns lose all gender distinctions in the plural. Наши and жизненные would have these exact same endings whether they were describing masculine, feminine, or neuter plural nouns. You just have to memorize that путь is masculine!
I recognize the verb ходить (to go/walk) inside расходятся. How do the extra parts change the meaning?
The prefix рас- adds the meaning of moving apart or scattering in different directions. The reflexive suffix -ся shows that the subjects (the paths) are doing this action themselves. Put together, the imperfective verb расходиться literally means 'to walk away from each other', which translates beautifully here as 'diverge' or 'part ways'.
Why does the adjective жизненные have a double н (-нн-)?
It is formed by taking the noun жизнь (life) and adding the suffix -енн- to the root. This specific suffix is a very common way to build adjectives from nouns in Russian, and it is always spelled with two нs.
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