Breakdown of Поверхность озера была как зеркало.
быть
to be
зеркало
mirror
озеро
lake
как
as (in comparisons)
поверхность
surface
Questions & Answers about Поверхность озера была как зеркало.
Why does the verb была take the feminine form here when озера and зеркало are neuter?
How can I tell that поверхность is feminine, given that Russian words ending in a soft sign can be masculine or feminine?
Nouns ending in the suffix -ость (like поверхность, радость, скорость) are extremely common in Russian and are always feminine. They often correspond to English abstract nouns ending in '-ness' or '-ity'.
Why is зеркало in the Nominative case? Doesn't the past tense of быть (to be) usually require the Instrumental case?
When you make a direct comparison using the conjunction как (like/as), the noun following it usually stays in the Nominative case to match the subject it is being compared to. If you dropped как to say literally 'The surface WAS a mirror,' then you would use the Instrumental case: Поверхность была зеркалом.
Could I use words like словно or будто instead of как for this comparison?
Yes! Both словно and будто (or как будто) mean 'as if' or 'like' and are fantastic choices for poetic or descriptive comparisons at a B2 level. They can replace как perfectly here without changing the rest of the grammar.
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