Breakdown of Геодезист, приехавший для межевания, разделил поле.
для
for
поле
field
приехать
to arrive (by transport, pf)
геодезист
surveyor
Questions & Answers about Геодезист, приехавший для межевания, разделил поле.
Why is приехавший used here instead of just saying который приехал?
Приехавший is an active past participle, meaning 'who arrived' or 'having arrived'. In written Russian, participles are often used to make sentences more concise and formal than using a который (who/which) clause. Both are grammatically correct, but the participle sounds more professional, which fits the context of a surveyor working.
How is the participle приехавший formed and why does it have this specific ending?
It comes from the perfective verb приехать (to arrive). To form the active past participle, we drop the -ть from the infinitive and add the suffix -вш-, followed by an adjective ending. It takes the nominative masculine ending -ий because it must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun it modifies, геодезист (surveyor), which is the masculine singular subject of the sentence.
Why are there commas around the phrase приехавший для межевания?
In Russian, participial phrases (a participle and its dependent words) must be separated by commas when they come directly after the noun they modify. Here, the phrase describes the геодезист and follows it, so it gets enclosed in commas. If the phrase came before the noun, as in Приехавший для межевания геодезист..., you would drop the commas.
The word межевания looks like it comes from a verb. What case is it in here?