Breakdown of Война уничтожила старый город.
город
city
старый
old
война
war
уничтожить
to destroy (perfective)
Questions & Answers about Война уничтожила старый город.
This lesson is about the passive voice, but this sentence is active. How would we express this in the passive voice?
To make it passive, the object becomes the subject: Старый город был уничтожен войной. We use the short-form past passive participle уничтожен, and the agent (война) moves to the instrumental case (войной).
How does the register change if we use the passive version instead of this active one?
The passive version with был уничтожен sounds highly formal and belongs to a written, historical, or journalistic register. The active voice used here (Война уничтожила старый город) is much more neutral, making it the natural choice for general speech and literature.
Is there a conversational way to make this passive, keeping the focus on the city rather than the war?
Yes! For a neutral or conversational passive feel, Russians use the third-person plural active form without a subject: Старый город уничтожили (literally, They destroyed the old city). This shifts the focus to the city without sounding like a formal history textbook.
Just as a refresher, why doesn't the ending of старый город change here if it's the direct object receiving the action?
It is indeed the direct object and therefore in the accusative case. However, because город is a masculine inanimate noun, its accusative form looks exactly identical to its nominative (dictionary) form.