Breakdown of Это ограбление совершил сообщник!
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
ограбление
the robbery
совершить
to commit
сообщник
the accomplice
Questions & Answers about Это ограбление совершил сообщник!
The English translation uses the passive voice (was committed by), but the Russian sentence is active. Why?
In English, we often use the passive voice to put the most important new information (the focus) at the end of the sentence. Russian achieves this same focus simply by changing the word order. It puts the known topic, Это ограбление, at the beginning and the new, surprising information, сообщник, at the very end, while keeping the active verb совершил. This Object-Verb-Subject structure is extremely common in Russian for shifting emphasis without needing a passive construction.
Both ограбление and сообщник look like they could be the subject. How can we tell who did what?
We can tell by looking at the verb's gender agreement. ограбление is a neuter noun, while сообщник is masculine. The past tense verb совершил has a masculine ending, meaning сообщник must be the subject in the nominative case. Therefore, Это ограбление is the direct object in the accusative case, which looks identical to the nominative for neuter inanimate nouns. If the robbery were the subject, the verb would be совершило.
Does putting сообщник at the end also affect whether it translates to an accomplice or the accomplice?
Yes! Because Russian does not use articles, word order does this job. Placing a noun at the end of the sentence signals that it is new information (the rheme), which naturally translates to the indefinite meaning: an accomplice. If you wanted to say that THE accomplice committed this robbery, you would put the known subject at the start: Сообщник совершил это ограбление!
Can the verb совершил be used for positive achievements?
It is primarily used for negative or highly formal acts. The perfective verb совершить is the standard partner for crimes (преступление), murders (убийство), or mistakes (ошибка), matching the English commit. You can also see it in formal set phrases like совершить открытие (to make a discovery) or совершить подвиг (to perform a heroic deed), but it is not used for everyday positive actions.
Learn Это ограбление совершил сообщник 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