Thread: Confusing as hell sentence!

Got linked to a comic; Нинзя-Черепашки и Русский Мишка. Which is funny in it's own right as the Russians have took a cartoon and added a bear with a machine gun as the main character :P Anyway was giving it a shot to translate it and I am confused why the female form is used in some parts and need a hand.

За окном, на фоне ночного неба стояла гигантская внушающая ужас, тёмная фигура какого-то страшного монстра

So what I got; Beyond/Outside the window, in the background of the night sky stood a giant ___ horror, an obscure figire of some scary monster. I understand it all, even surprisingly the genitives/instrumental and all the genders used, however the part I don't understand (highlighted) which I believe to be the Subject (Nominative) is declined as a female adjective when the word I think it is describing is ужас which is male? Also I couldn't figure out what внушающая meant.

Cheers.

Original; http://englishrussia.com/images/russian_comix/2.jpg

"внушающая ужас" = horror-inspiring. The figure was giant, horror-inspiring, and obscure

so what part does the word ужас play in this, is it sort of an "Add-adjective???" haha. It is very strange to me.

Ужас, which is in the accusative here, acts as an object of the participle "внушающая". Does "внушать ужас" make sense to you? Someone or something that "внушает ужас" can be described as "внушающий/внушающая ужас".

Originally Posted by ShakeyX

so what part does the word ужас play in this, is it sort of an "Add-adjective???" haha. It is very strange to me.

The structure is relatively straightforward
horror, terror = ужас
to inspire horror = внушать ужас
Now we transform that into participle in order to make it possible to use this as we would use an adjective:
horror-inspiring = внушающий ужас (note that adjectival participles have the same endings as adjectives and are subject to the same rules of agreement)

giant figure/ enormous figure = гигантская фигура
Therefore, "an enormous horror-inspiring figure" becomes "гигантская, внушающая ужас фигура" – and "a dark, enormous, horror-inspiring figure of some scary monster" is "гигантская, внушающая ужас тёмная фигура какого-то страшного монстра"

And, just as in English, to make some sentences less mind-blowing, Russian tends to use "that"-clauses instead of participles in a more colloquial speech. Like "a giant dark and heavy figure that inspired with awe" rather than "a giant awe inspiring dark and heavy figure". In Russian even more so, as participles are mainly characteristic of written speech. Children are actually taught their usage at school, exactly because one is extremely unlikely to catch on adjectival and adverbal participles just through communication with pals. Even after some education, many people make mistakes such as "Having searched through forests for two weeks, a corpse was all but eaten"

Originally Posted by ShakeyX

За окном, на фоне ночного неба стояла гигантская внушающая ужас, тёмная фигура какого-то страшного монстра

First, запятая после слова "ужас" не нужна. Second, нужна запятая после слова "неба", потому что "на фоне ночного неба" - это уточнение.

За окном, на фоне ночного неба, стояла гигантская внушающая ужас тёмная фигура какого-то страшного монстра

And thirdly, гигантская внушающая ужас тёмная фигура = гигантская тёмная фигура, внушающая ужас, / гигантская тёмная фигура, которая внушала ужас,..

перед "внушающая" тоже нужна запятая.

Originally Posted by Marcus

перед "внушающая" тоже нужна запятая.

а после "ужас" - не нужна