Breakdown of Птицы вёснами начинают гнездиться.
птица
bird
весна
spring
начинать
to begin
гнездиться
to nest
Questions & Answers about Птицы вёснами начинают гнездиться.
Why is вёснами in the instrumental plural here instead of the singular весной?
The instrumental plural вёснами indicates temporal iteration, meaning the action happens repeatedly every spring or during the springs. While весной means in spring generally, using the bare plural emphasizes the recurring, year-after-year nature of the seasons.
Could we use the perfective aspect for either of the verbs in this sentence?
No. Because вёснами sets up a repeated, habitual action, the main verb начинают must be imperfective. Furthermore, Russian grammar requires that verbs of beginning like начинать are always followed by an imperfective infinitive, so гнездиться must also be imperfective.
Where does the verb гнездиться come from, and why does it end in -ся?
It is derived from the noun гнездо (nest). The reflexive suffix -ся is used here to make the verb intransitive, meaning the birds are simply engaging in the action of nesting, rather than transferring an action onto a direct object.
Is it natural to put the time expression вёснами between the subject and the verb?
Yes. Placing a time marker like вёснами early in the sentence, right after the subject, is a very common way to set the scene in Russian. It smoothly connects the birds to the habitual timeframe before introducing their action.
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