Breakdown of Шашлык был горячий и очень вкусный.
и
and
очень
very
вкусный
tasty
горячий
hot
быть
to be
шашлык
shashlik, grilled meat on a skewer
Questions & Answers about Шашлык был горячий и очень вкусный.
Why are горячий and вкусный in the nominative case instead of the instrumental (горячим, вкусным) after был?
When using был (was), you can use either the nominative or the instrumental case for adjectives. The nominative (горячий, вкусный) is used here because it simply states a factual description of the food's qualities. The instrumental is often used to emphasize a temporary state or a change in state, but for basic everyday descriptions of a meal like this, the nominative is very natural.
Could I use the short form adjectives (горяч, вкусен) here instead?
You could grammatically, but it would sound overly poetic or formal. Short adjectives in modern Russian are often reserved for literature, formal speech, or abstract concepts. For everyday physical descriptions like a hot, tasty skewer of meat, the long forms (горячий, вкусный) are the standard choice.
I always mix up the Russian words for hot. Why use горячий here instead of жаркий?
Горячий is used for things that are physically hot to the touch or to consume, like food, liquids, or metal. Жаркий is used for hot weather, climates, or intense situations like a heated debate. Since шашлык is food, горячий is the only correct choice.
In English we might say 'The kebabs were hot', using a plural. Is шашлык normally singular or plural?
Шашлык is frequently used in the singular as a mass noun to refer to the dish or the meal as a whole (similar to how we use the word 'barbecue' in English), even if there were multiple skewers of meat. If you specifically want to point out the individual physical skewers, you could use the plural шашлыки, but the singular used here is perfectly natural for describing the food in general.
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