"Почему он не работает?"

Translation: Why is he not working?

[ph516503]

Could this also be "why does it not work?" (e.g. if a piece of equipment has broken)

[ZalaProko]

I think "it" is оно, but don't quote me on that...

[elsantodel90]

Russian "он" "она" "оно" work based on the gender of the noun (word) they refer to. When this nouns are directly persons (names or pronouns), that is their gender as well, so "он" is "he" and "она" is "she". However, when these nouns are objects, English would use "it" but Russian uses "он" "она" "оно" depending on gender.

So:

If you are referring to a "стол", table, use "он".

If you are referring to a "река", river, use "она".

If you are referring to a "вино", wine, use "оно"

All three previous examples would be "it" in English.

[RandomCanadian12]

работать can't be used for something "working" like "functioning" right?

[elsantodel90]

It can. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B1%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8C

[luigipinna]

Could we accept "Why isn't he at work?"

[2E3S]

No, this would be "Почему он не на работе?".

[RandomCanadian12]

I can tell you from experience that just because someone is at work, doesn't mean that they are working. Thus these are two different sentences with two different meanings

[R_Andersson]

Вопрос:Почему он не работает?
Ответ: Он не работает, потому что он не хочет. Он сейчас больной.

Вопрос: Зачем он не работает?
Ответ: Он не работает, затем что он пойдёт на вечерник вечером.

Это правильно?

[2E3S]

"Зачем он не работает?" sounds wrong. "Зачем?" = "for what reason?" meaning some goal why the action is (not) taken. So the answer sounds wrong as well.

[R_Andersson]

Weird that it sound wrong in Russian. In English, it does not sound so wrong.

‘For what reason are you not working?’ = ‘What reason do you have to not be working right now?’

[2E3S]

"Зачем он не работает?" is more like "for what goal isn't he working?". I think the meaning is weird. Use "почему", "отчего", "по какой причине" to ask about the cause.

[deactivated user]

I think «зачем» generally doesn't work very well with negative sentences.

«Зачем он взял выходной» sounds much better than «Зачем он не работает», «Зачем ты оставил окно открытым» sounds much better than «Зачем ты не закрыл окно».

I'm not sure why, though.

[Eugene_Ukraine]

why not why he does not work?