Breakdown of Длинная стрелка показывает минуты, а короткая — часы.
а
and (contrastive)
час
hour
минута
minute
показывать
to show
длинный
long
короткий
short
стрелка
clock hand
Questions & Answers about Длинная стрелка показывает минуты, а короткая — часы.
Why is the word стрелка used for a clock hand?
In Russian, a clock hand is called стрелка, which literally means a small arrow (from стрела meaning arrow). You will also see this word used for pointers on dials, compasses, or road signs.
Why is there a dash (—) after короткая?
The dash is used to skip repeating words from the first half of the sentence. Instead of saying the full phrase а короткая стрелка показывает часы (and the short hand shows hours), the dash neatly stands in for стрелка показывает.
Why use the conjunction а instead of и for 'and'?
The conjunction а is used because we are contrasting two subjects: the long hand versus the short hand. While English often just uses 'and' for this, Russian prefers а whenever drawing a comparison or contrast between two things doing different actions.
What case are the words минуты and часы in?
They are in the accusative plural because they are the direct objects being shown by the verb показывает. For inanimate nouns like these, the accusative plural looks exactly the same as the nominative plural.
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