Breakdown of Родитель несёт ответственность за ребёнка.
ребёнок
child
родитель
parent
нести ответственность
to bear responsibility
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Russian grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Родитель несёт ответственность за ребёнка.
Why use несёт ответственность instead of a single verb like отвечает?
This is a formal analytical predicate. Substituting the simple verb отвечает with the noun-verb collocation несёт ответственность elevates the sentence to an official or legal register. You will encounter this structure frequently in contracts, laws, and formal journalism.
Why is за followed by ребёнка in this sentence?
The phrase нести ответственность (just like the simple verb отвечать) dictates the use of the preposition за followed by the accusative case to indicate who or what one is responsible for. Since ребёнок is an animate noun, its accusative form takes the same ending as the genitive case, becoming ребёнка.
Can I use other verbs with ответственность to form similar predicates?
Yes. While нести is the standard verb for the ongoing state of bearing responsibility, you can use брать ответственность or взять ответственность (usually with на себя) to express taking on or assuming responsibility.
Why is the verb несёт in the imperfective aspect here?
Bearing responsibility as a parent is a continuous, permanent state rather than a completed action. Therefore, the imperfective verb нести is required. You would only switch to a perfective verb for a completed event, such as taking responsibility for a one-off mistake.