"Какова природа этого явления?"

Translation: What is the nature of this phenomenon?

[flootzavut]

явление — одно (?) из моих самых любимых русских слов :)

[Shady_arc]

Thanks :) By the way, your sentence is perfect. You would use «один» with a gender, number and case of the object that would stand there if you DID NOT use such construction:

• Явление — слово → Явление — одно из моих самых любимых слов.
• Я перечитал книгу. → Я перечитал одну из самых известных книг десятилетия.
• Я поговорил с людьми. → Я поговорил с одними из самых загадочных людей планеты.

Basically, the whole structure «один из самых _» shows the case required by the sentence structure, and borrows gender/number from the word it represents. If you use a more generic «один из», it is normally singular because "ones of the books" does not make much sense (it does if you have something pluralia tantum, like scissors, pants etc.)

[flootzavut]

Excellent! The phrase was there in my head as один из моих and I couldn't remember any rules around it for the life of me, but it seemed logical/'right' to use одно. It's nice to know I've not forgotten everything and my instincts haven't entirely deserted me ;) and thanks for the explanation, too :D

[MS_Genius88]

I love this word too. :)

[flootzavut]

:D

[DmitriiKarpov]

What about "мгновение"? Остановись, мгновенье, ты прекрасно))

[agt_kington]

Evidently какова is not a declension of какой. So what is it?

[Shady_arc]

It is a form of каков, which is an interrogative predicate word describing a quality of something (the forms are каков, какова, каково, каковы: the word behaves as a short-form adjective). the word is kind of bookish.

[jaiirapetjan]

I just love it when the hover rules suggest something that is then not accepted as an answer. (этого = of the, according to hoverhints). But Duo wanted "this" instead of "the" (which is what I would have put if I hadn't have hovered).

[gruamaire]

I said "of what nature is this phenomenon?" and it was marked wrong. Any reason for this?

[BenYoung84]

Putting "of" before "what nature" makes those words genitive and the rest nominative, which is the opposite of the Russian sentence. Your sentence probably translates as something like "каковой природы это явление".

[Shady_arc]

Actually, just Какой природы это явление.

Каков works like a predicate adjective, i.e. it only has 4 forms, all Nominative. Каковой ("which") is a different word. These days it is a niche pronoun, used in some formal (but not especially neutral) styles—and also sarcastically :). Less than a century ago, people used it seriously:

• Постановили: назначить пособие 50 руб., каковую сумму и внести в смету 1911 года.
• Все цеховые мастера уплачивают в течение года по ремеслу цеховых повинностей до 150.00 рублей, из каковой суммы временно-цеховые сносят свыше 120.000 рублей.
• Далее, он ещё довольно подробно останавливается на рассмотрении вопроса о правах мужа на приданое жены, повод к возбуждению какового вопроса даёт правило 1153 ст. X т.
• . . . Судья может выступать в роли законодателя, каковым был, например, римский претор, каковым является современный английский судья.

[BenYoung84]

Thanks Igor, I wasn't at all confident about that.

[ewYh8]

The demonstrative pronoun 'this' versus the definite article 'the' - they are interchangeable in the situation "What is the nature of this/the (even 'that' would suit) phenomenon.

[Shady_arc]

Yes, I think it makes sense in this case.