Breakdown of Прощение — это трудная работа души.
работа
work, job
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
трудный
difficult
душа
soul
Questions & Answers about Прощение — это трудная работа души.
Why do we use — это here, and why doesn't это change to match the feminine noun работа?
In Russian, when you equate two nouns in the nominative case (Noun A is Noun B), you often use an em-dash followed by это. Here, это acts as a fixed particle meaning "is" or "this is", rather than an adjective or pronoun. Because it is a fixed particle, it stays in its neutral form regardless of the gender of the nouns around it.
The English translation says "for the soul", so why is души in the genitive case instead of using a preposition like для?
While English naturalizes the phrasing to "work for the soul", the Russian sentence literally translates to "work of the soul". The genitive case (души) is used here to show possession or origin—the soul is the entity actually doing the working. If you used для души, it would mean the work is done for the benefit of or to please the soul.
Could I use тяжёлая instead of трудная to mean "hard" in this sentence?
You could, but it shifts the nuance. Трудная shares a root with труд (labor) and implies a task that requires a lot of active effort or mental exertion, which pairs perfectly with работа. Тяжёлая literally means "heavy" and would emphasize the emotional burden, grief, or painfulness of the process rather than the effort required.
How is the noun прощение formed from the verb meaning "to forgive"?