Breakdown of Этот памятник является символом города.
город
city
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
памятник
monument
являться
to be (formal)
символ
symbol
Questions & Answers about Этот памятник является символом города.
Why use является here instead of just putting a dash between the nouns like we usually do for 'is'?
You definitely could say Этот памятник — символ города in everyday speech. However, являться is a formal verb that means 'to be.' You will often see it in literature, news, or official descriptions to sound more elevated and formal.
Why does символ change to символом?
The formal verb являться (just like казаться) requires the noun that follows it to be in the Instrumental case. For a masculine noun like символ, we add the ending -ом.
Why is the word for city (город) written as города here?
города is in the Genitive case, which acts like the English word 'of'. It links the two nouns together to mean 'symbol of the city'.
Could I use являться to say everyday things like 'I am a student' or 'She is my friend'?
You shouldn't do that in regular conversation. While grammatically correct if you use the Instrumental case (Она является моей подругой), it sounds extremely robotic and bureaucratic. Save являться for formal definitions or official contexts like describing this monument.
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