Breakdown of Тело человека — сложная система.
человек
person
сложный
difficult, complex
система
system
тело
body
Questions & Answers about Тело человека — сложная система.
Why is there a dash (—) between человека and сложная?
In Russian, when you equate one noun to another in the present tense (like 'Noun A is Noun B'), you drop the verb 'to be' and usually put a dash in its place. Here, it stands in for 'is', connecting the subject (тело) to what it is (система).
The English translation is 'The human body'. Why does Russian use two nouns (Тело человека) instead of an adjective?
While you could use an adjective and say человеческое тело, Russian frequently uses a 'Noun + Noun in the Genitive case' structure where English simply stacks nouns. Тело человека literally means 'the body of a human'. This is the most common and natural way to express 'the human body' in Russian.
Why does сложная end in -ая? Shouldn't it match the neuter word тело?
Since our current lesson is about physical pain, how would I use these words to say 'The human's body hurts'?
You would use the pain construction you are learning: У + Genitive + болит + Nominative. It would become У человека болит тело (literally: 'By the human, the body aches'). In our current example sentence, we aren't talking about pain or possession, so we just use the Nominative case for the subject (Тело).
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