Breakdown of Речь идёт о будущем наших детей.
ребёнок
child
наш
our
будущее
future
речь идёт о
it is about, the matter concerns
Questions & Answers about Речь идёт о будущем наших детей.
The translation says "It is about", but what is the literal meaning of Речь идёт о?
Literally, it means "Speech goes about" or "The conversation is going about". This is the standard and most natural Russian idiom for "It is a question of", "The issue is", or "We are talking about" when identifying a main topic. It is always followed by the preposition о (or об) plus the Prepositional case.
Since this lesson is about Что касается... (As for...), could we use that construction here instead?
They both establish a topic, but they serve different grammatical roles. Что касается будущего наших детей... means "As for the future of our children..." and acts as an introductory clause that requires a second half to complete the sentence (for example, "...we must protect it"). In contrast, Речь идёт о... forms a complete standalone thought: "The topic at hand is..."
Why does the word for "future" (будущем) end in -ем here?
The word будущее is a substantivized adjective, meaning it is an adjective that functions as a neuter noun. Because it follows the preposition о, it must be in the Prepositional case. Neuter adjectives ending in -ее in the Nominative case take the -ем ending in the Prepositional case.
What case is наших детей and why?
It is in the Genitive plural, translating to "of our children". Notice that the plural of ребёнок (child) is the highly irregular дети. In the Genitive plural, it becomes детей, which you simply have to memorize instead of looking for standard plural noun endings.
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