Breakdown of Его брат служит в армии.
брат
brother
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
служить
to serve
армия
the army (f)
Questions & Answers about Его брат служит в армии.
Since our current lesson is about passive voice, is there a passive equivalent commonly used for this, like 'he is stationed' or 'he is employed by the army'?
No, Russian avoids passive voice for this concept. While English often uses passive constructions like 'is stationed' or 'is deployed', Russian strongly prefers the active, direct statement он служит (he serves) for military personnel. Trying to force a passive participle here would sound extremely unnatural in Russian.
Why use служит here instead of работает (works)?
The verb служить translates directly to 'to serve'. In Russian, you do not use работать (to work) when talking about the military, the police, or the church. For those specific state or religious duties, you must use the active verb служить.
Why is the ending -ии in в армии instead of the usual prepositional -е for feminine nouns?
Nouns ending in -ия (like армия, Россия, история) are an exception to the standard rule. Instead of taking -е in the prepositional case, they take -ии. Therefore, it correctly becomes в армии, not в армие.
Why doesn't Его change its ending to match the masculine noun брат?
Его is the genitive form of он (he), functioning here as an invariable possessive pronoun meaning 'his'. Unlike standard possessive pronouns like мой or наш, the third-person possessives (его, её, их) are frozen and never change their endings to match the gender, case, or number of the noun they modify.
Learn Его брат служит в армии 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