Breakdown of Русская пунктуация кажется сложной, но в ней есть строгие правила.
она
she / it (for a feminine noun)
в
in / to (direction)
есть
is, there is, to have
но
but
правило
rule
сложный
difficult, complex
русский
Russian
строгий
strict
казаться
to seem
пунктуация
punctuation
Questions & Answers about Русская пунктуация кажется сложной, но в ней есть строгие правила.
Why is сложной in the instrumental case instead of the nominative сложная?
The verb кажется (seems) requires the adjective describing the subject to be in the instrumental case. This is a common pattern for verbs that describe a state of being, appearing, or becoming, such as являться (to be) or стать (to become).
The English translation says 'it has', but the Russian uses в ней. Why not use у неё есть?
У неё есть is the standard way to express possession (literally 'by it is'). However, в ней есть literally means 'in it there are'. We use в ней here because the rules exist inside the system of Russian punctuation, rather than the punctuation 'owning' them as a person or creature would.
Could I drop the word есть and just say в ней строгие правила?
Yes, you could, but keeping есть emphasizes the actual existence of these rules. This adds a nice contrast to the first half of the sentence: it might seem complicated, but strict rules really do exist to guide you.
Since this lesson is about verbal adverbs (деепричастия), where is the verbal adverb in this sentence?
There actually isn't one here! This sentence serves as an introduction to the lesson's theme. The comma here simply separates two independent clauses joined by но (but). You will see the strict punctuation rules for verbal adverbs in the upcoming examples.
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