Breakdown of Тань, закрой окно в спальне, такой сильный сквозняк!
окно
window
в
in / to (direction)
спальня
bedroom
закрыть
to close
сильный
strong
такой
such / so / what ... is
Таня
Tanya
сквозняк
draft (m)
Questions & Answers about Тань, закрой окно в спальне, такой сильный сквозняк!
How is the truncated vocative Тань formed from Таня, and why does it need a soft sign?
In colloquial Russian, you can call someone by dropping the final -а or -я of their short name. For Таня, dropping the -я leaves the consonant н. Because the н before the -я in Таня is soft, we must add a soft sign (ь) to preserve that soft pronunciation, resulting in Тань.
Why does the speaker use the perfective imperative закрой rather than the imperfective закрывай?
The speaker wants a single, immediate result: the window being closed right now to stop the draft. The perfective закрой focuses on successfully completing this specific action. The imperfective закрывай would sound more like a general instruction or an impatient urging if Tan was already in the process of closing it.
Why do we use такой here instead of так?
We use такой because it modifies a noun phrase (сильный сквозняк). Even though it translates similarly to "so" or "such", так is an adverb used to modify verbs, short adjectives, or other adverbs. When modifying a noun, you must use the adjective form такой, which agrees with the noun in gender, case, and number.
Why is такой сильный сквозняк in the nominative case?
This exclamation acts as a short, independent clause. In conversational Russian, it is very common to state the sudden presence or existence of something simply by using the nominative case, which implicitly means "there is" such a strong draft.
Learn Тань, закрой окно в спальне, такой сильный сквозняк and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free