Questions & Answers about Берёза — русское дерево.
Why is there a dash (—) in the middle of this sentence?
In Russian, present tense forms of the verb "to be" (am, is, are) are usually dropped. When equating two nouns in the nominative case (like берёза and дерево here), you use an em dash to replace the missing "is".
We are learning about special locative endings like в лесу (in the forest). If I wanted to say "on the tree", would дерево also get a special -у ending?
No, дерево is regular in the prepositional case. You would say на дереве. The special stressed -у or -ю endings apply mostly to a specific handful of short masculine nouns (like лес becoming в лесу), whereas дерево is neuter.
Why does the adjective русское end in -ое?
It must agree with the noun it describes, which is дерево (tree). Because дерево ends in -о and is a neuter noun, the adjective takes the neuter nominative ending -ое.
How would I make дерево plural if I wanted to talk about Russian trees in general?
Дерево has an irregular plural. Instead of following the standard neuter rules, it becomes деревья. To say "Russian trees", you would say русские деревья.
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