Breakdown of Скоро полиция эвакуирует здание.
здание
building
скоро
soon
полиция
police
эвакуировать
to evacuate
Questions & Answers about Скоро полиция эвакуирует здание.
How do we know эвакуирует means "will evacuate" (future) when it has a present-tense ending?
The verb эвакуировать (to evacuate) is a biaspectual verb. It does double duty as both imperfective and perfective without changing its form. Here, it is acting as a perfective verb, and in Russian, perfective verbs conjugated with present-tense endings actually express the future. The word скоро (soon) provides the vital contextual clue that the action will be completed in the future.
If эвакуирует can also be imperfective, how would I say "The police are evacuating the building right now"?
You could use the exact same phrase: Полиция эвакуирует здание. Without a future marker like скоро, native speakers default to understanding this as an ongoing present action. To make it absolutely unambiguous, you might just swap скоро for a word like сейчас (now).
In English we say "the police are", using a plural verb. Why does Russian use the singular эвакуирует?
Unlike the English word "police" which takes a plural verb, the Russian word полиция is a standard feminine singular noun. Therefore, it strictly requires a third-person singular verb. Think of it structurally like the English phrase "the police force is".
Since здание is the direct object being evacuated, shouldn't it be in the accusative case?
It is exactly that! The word здание is an inanimate neuter noun. For neuter nouns, the accusative case is always identical to the nominative (dictionary) form, so the spelling does not change at all.