Breakdown of Там, где покрытие не поглощает шум, он сильно отражается от стен.
не
not
где
where / wherever
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
там
there
от
from
стена
wall
шум
noise
сильно
strongly, greatly
отражаться
to bounce
покрытие
coating
поглощать
to absorb
Questions & Answers about Там, где покрытие не поглощает шум, он сильно отражается от стен.
Why do we need Там at the beginning if the English translation just says "Where"?
This is a classic Russian spatial correlative clause. While English just says "Where X happens, Y happens," Russian pairs a demonstrative adverb (там - there) in the main clause with a relative adverb (где - where) in the subordinate clause. You can think of the Russian structure literally as "There, where the coating does not absorb noise, it bounces."
Does он refer to the coating or the noise?
It refers to шум (the noise), which is a masculine noun. If it were referring to the coating (покрытие), the pronoun would have to be neuter (оно). In Russian, tracking the grammatical gender of nouns makes it perfectly clear exactly what is bouncing off the walls, even though both nouns translate to "it" in English.
Why is the reflexive verb отражается used here instead of отражает?
The non-reflexive отражает requires a direct object because it means to reflect something else (like a mirror reflecting light). Because the noise isn't reflecting another object, but rather performing the bouncing action itself, we add the reflexive -ся ending to make the verb intransitive.
What case is стен in the phrase от стен?
It is in the genitive plural. The preposition от (from/off) always requires the genitive case. For feminine nouns ending in -а like стена (wall), the genitive plural is formed by dropping the vowel ending entirely, leaving what is called a zero ending: стен.
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