Breakdown of Спустя год учёные снова спорили как о материке, так и об озере Байкал.
и
and
о
about (о, об, обо)
спорить
to argue
год
year
так
so, like this
учёный
scientist, scholar
озеро
lake
снова
again
как
as (in comparisons)
спустя
after / later (a period of time)
материк
continent (m)
Байкал
Baikal (m)
Questions & Answers about Спустя год учёные снова спорили как о материке, так и об озере Байкал.
Why is Байкал in the nominative case instead of the prepositional case like озере?
When a generic geographical term like озеро (lake) is paired with a proper name, the proper name acts as an appositive. For lakes, mountains, and islands, it is modern standard practice to leave the proper name in the nominative case (Байкал) even when the generic noun changes case (об озере). You might still see the older style where both agree (об озере Байкале), but leaving the name in the nominative is very common today.
What is the grammatical structure of как о материке, так и об озере?
This uses the paired conjunction как ... так и ..., which translates to 'both ... and ...'. Notice that the preposition о / об is repeated before both nouns. In Russian, it is required to repeat the preposition after the second half of this conjunction.
Does спустя take the accusative case here, even though год looks like the nominative?
Yes, the preposition спустя (meaning 'after' or 'later') requires the accusative case. Since год is an inanimate masculine noun, its accusative form is identical to its nominative form. If you used a feminine noun, the case change would be obvious, such as in the phrase спустя неделю (a week later).
Why does the preposition change from о to об before озере?
The preposition о (about) changes to об when the following word begins with a pronounced vowel. Since озере starts with an 'o' sound, we use об for smoother pronunciation. It remains о before материке because that word starts with a consonant.
Learn Спустя год учёные снова спорили как о материке, так и об озере Байкал 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