Breakdown of В лесу, около которого мы живём, хорошо погулять и подышать.
и
and
мы
we
жить
to live
хорошо
well
в
in / to (direction)
около
near
лес
forest, wood
который
which / who / that (relative pronoun)
подышать
to breathe for a while
погулять
to walk for a while
Questions & Answers about В лесу, около которого мы живём, хорошо погулять и подышать.
Why do we use погулять and подышать instead of just гулять and дышать?
The prefix по- adds the meaning of doing an action for a short, limited amount of time. Instead of the general actions of walking (гулять) and breathing (дышать), these verbs mean to take a short walk and to get some fresh air for a bit. It gives the sentence a casual, relaxed feeling.
Why is the relative pronoun которого in the genitive case?
The word которого refers back to the masculine noun лес (forest). It is in the genitive case because it directly follows the preposition около (near), and около always forces the word that comes after it into the genitive case.
I learned that the prepositional case usually ends in -е. Why is it в лесу instead of в лесе?
A small group of short, masculine Russian nouns take a special locative ending (-у or -ю) in the prepositional case when indicating location after the prepositions в or на. The word лес is one of these common exceptions, so 'in the forest' is always в лесу.
Why does the sentence use хорошо right before the verbs instead of saying something like это хорошо?
Russian frequently uses impersonal constructions where an adverb like хорошо (it is nice / it is good) stands alone and is followed directly by an infinitive verb. You do not need a dummy subject like 'it' or это to express 'it is nice to walk'.
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