Breakdown of Город сделал не только широкую велодорожку, но и яркое освещение.
город
city
сделать
to do (perfective) / to make (perfective)
широкий
wide
яркий
bright
не только ..., но и ...
not only... but also...
освещение
lighting
велодорожка
bike path
Questions & Answers about Город сделал не только широкую велодорожку, но и яркое освещение.
How does the structure не только ..., но и ... work here?
It translates to 'not only ..., but also ...' and is used to emphasize the addition of a second piece of information. Notice the punctuation: Russian always requires a comma before но in this double conjunction. Both items being connected must have the exact same grammatical role in the sentence.
Since the objects connected by the conjunction must share a grammatical role, what case are they in here?
They are both direct objects of the verb сделал, so they are both in the accusative case. Велодорожка is feminine, so it changes to the accusative велодорожку alongside its adjective широкую. Освещение is an inanimate neuter noun, so its accusative form looks exactly like its nominative form, which is why яркое освещение appears unchanged.
Why must не только be placed exactly where it is in this sentence?
The conjunction must go immediately before the specific elements being paired. Because the sentence pairs two objects (the bike path and the lighting), не только sits right before the first object. If you moved it before the verb and said не только сделал, the second half of the sentence would need to introduce a second verb to balance it out, such as '...but also opened a park'.
How is the word велодорожку formed, and why does it use a diminutive form?
It is a compound of the prefix вело- (bicycle) and дорожка (path or track). Дорожка is actually a diminutive of дорога (road). It is used here because a bike path is a smaller, narrower lane compared to a full road meant for cars.
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