Breakdown of Как только хищник появился, стадо, пасущееся в степи, убежало.
в
in / to (direction)
степь
steppe
как только
as soon as
убежать
to run away
появиться
to appear
хищник
predator
стадо
herd
пастись
to graze
Questions & Answers about Как только хищник появился, стадо, пасущееся в степи, убежало.
How would you write the phrase пасущееся в степи using a который clause instead?
You would write которое пасётся в степи (which is grazing in the steppe). Since стадо (the herd) is neuter and in the nominative case, the relative pronoun becomes которое. The verb пасётся is in the present tense, which allows us to reduce it into a present active participle.
Why does пасущееся end with -ся instead of -сь?
The original verb is пастись (to graze). When turning a reflexive verb into a participle, the reflexive particle remains attached at the very end. However, unlike standard verb conjugations where -ся shrinks to -сь after a vowel, participles always keep the full -ся ending regardless of the letter before it.
How exactly is the word пасущееся built from the verb?
We take the plural present tense form пасут (they graze) and replace the -т with the active participle suffix -щ-, giving us the stem пасущ-. Then we add the neuter nominative adjective ending -ее to match стадо. Finally, we add the reflexive particle -ся.
Why are there commas around пасущееся в степи?
In Russian, when a participle phrase with its dependent words comes right after the noun it describes (in this case, стадо), it must be set off by commas. If we flipped the word order so the phrase came before the noun (пасущееся в степи стадо), we would drop the commas.
Why is the prepositional case form в степи instead of в степе?
Степь (steppe) is a feminine noun that ends in a soft sign, making it a 3rd declension noun. These nouns take an -и ending in the prepositional case rather than the standard -е.
Learn Как только хищник появился, стадо, пасущееся в степи, убежало and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free