Breakdown of Кошачьи глаза хорошо видят в темноте.
хорошо
well
в
in / to (direction)
видеть
to see
глаз
eye
темнота
darkness (f)
кошачий
cat's
Questions & Answers about Кошачьи глаза хорошо видят в темноте.
Why does кошачьи end in -ьи instead of a standard plural adjective ending like -ие?
Кошачьи is a possessive adjective formed from кошка (cat). These adjectives answer the question 'whose?' and follow a special declension pattern. In the nominative plural, instead of standard endings, they take the ending -ьи. The masculine singular dictionary form is кошачий.
Is there a difference between saying кошачьи глаза and глаза кошки?
Both are grammatically correct and mean 'cat's eyes', but they carry slightly different nuances. Глаза кошки (using the genitive case) usually refers to the specific eyes of a specific cat. Кошачьи глаза (using the possessive adjective) can mean a specific cat's eyes, but is much more commonly used to describe feline eyes in general, as it is used in this sentence.
Why is the plural of глаз (eye) глаза and not глазы?
Глаз is one of several common masculine nouns that take a stressed -а (or -я) ending in the nominative plural instead of the standard -ы or -и. Other familiar examples include дом (house) becoming дома, and вечер (evening) becoming вечера.
Видеть ends in -еть, so why is the 'they' form видят instead of a first-conjugation ending?
Видеть (to see) is one of the classic exceptions to the conjugation rules. Even though its infinitive ends in -еть, it belongs to the second conjugation. Therefore, it takes second conjugation endings across the board: я вижу, ты видишь, and, as seen in this sentence, они видят.
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