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in this sentence: Скажи мне, где мы находимся (есть), мы находимся (есть) очень далеко от дома, сегодня облачно могла бы идти дождь why the мочЬ is in feminin gender? is it for an implied погода? thanks

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    The sentence is grammatically wrong. Where did you get it from? It should be ...мог бы идти дождь.
    – UVV
    Jan 5, 2016 at 12:58
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    It's in feminine because it's wrong. Correct is мог and мог is masculine.
    – Abakan
    Jan 5, 2016 at 12:59
  • That's why It sounded me odd. I copied from my textbook. Thank you very much!
    – mario
    Jan 5, 2016 at 13:02
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    Besides, the sentence looks really strange. Usually Russian people tend to avoid unneeded verbs like this: Где мы (сейчас)? Мы очень далеко от дома.
    – Matt
    Jan 5, 2016 at 19:12

1 Answer 1

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Unless могла бы идти is separated with e.g. commas as a form of address to a feminine addressee, the sentence is grammatically wrong.

The mistake derives from difficulty most non-native speakers face when trying to distinguish from each other masculine and feminine words ending in the soft sign.

For example, дождь is masculine, but рожь is feminine. Then, again, медведь is masculine while подать (with the stressed o) is feminine. One could hope for any monosyllabic word being feminine, but, alas, кость is feminine while гость is not. However, any word ending in -сть or -нь and deriving from an adjective is by rule a feminine one, e.g. радость, гадость, пакость, синь, зелень, теплынь, пьянь.

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  • Подать with the stressed а is a verb. Did you mean "stressed о"?
    – Quassnoi
    Jan 6, 2016 at 0:56
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    The subject of the question has no relation to distinguishing masculine/feminine nouns. It's not about noun "мочь", it's about a verb.
    – Abakan
    Jan 6, 2016 at 11:00
  • @Alex S. Pls don't make the things more complicated than they already are. The topic of the question and the question itself contains a presupposition of feminine gender in the phrase the verb being a noun; since I define a language as a space of probabilities within a given grammatical matrix, the reasons of the possible mistake in the interpretation should also be considered. Hence, my answer is topic-relevant :-)
    – Manjusri
    Jan 6, 2016 at 14:03
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    The question is why могла is used in the sentence (and not мог). Please read the question (and the comments to it) carefully. There is not a single word about мочь being a noun.
    – Abakan
    Jan 6, 2016 at 14:08
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    Pls use some logic. The feminine form of the verb is governed by a [errouneously presumed] feminine form of дождь. And, btw. re-read my answer as well. Hope this helps :-)
    – Manjusri
    Jan 6, 2016 at 16:30

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