Breakdown of Если вы знаете что-либо о разведении осетра, аквакультура — это выгодный бизнес.
это
this / it is
вы
you (plural or formal)
знать
to know
о
about (о, об, обо)
если
if
бизнес
business
выгодный
profitable / cost-effective
аквакультура
aquaculture
осётр
sturgeon
разведение
breeding
что-либо
anything
Questions & Answers about Если вы знаете что-либо о разведении осетра, аквакультура — это выгодный бизнес.
Why use что-либо here instead of что-то or что-нибудь?
While all three can translate to "something" or "anything", they have different nuances. Что-то implies a specific but unknown thing. Что-нибудь means "anything at all" and is common in everyday speech. Что-либо carries the exact same meaning as что-нибудь but is more formal and bookish. It is very commonly used in conditional clauses starting with если (if) to mean "anything whatsoever".
Why does разведении end in -ии after the preposition о? Shouldn't the Prepositional case end in -е?
Nouns that end in -ие in the dictionary, like разведение (breeding), are an exception to the standard Prepositional case rule. Instead of changing the final letter to an -е, they take the ending -ии in the Prepositional case.
What is the dictionary form of осетра, and why does the spelling change?
The dictionary form is осётр (sturgeon). This sentence uses the Genitive case because it means "breeding OF the sturgeon". When the case ending -а is added, the ё drops out of the root. This is a very common pattern in Russian called a "fleeting vowel".
Why is there a dash before это выгодный бизнес?
In Russian, when both the subject (аквакультура) and the core of the predicate (бизнес) are nouns in the Nominative case, a dash is used to link them instead of a present-tense "to be" verb. The word это is frequently added after the dash to help equate the two concepts.
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