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Questions & Answers about Знак принадлежит зданию.
Why is зданию used instead of здание?
Because the verb принадлежать means to belong (to), and in Russian it requires the thing or person that something belongs to to be in the dative case.
So:
- знак = the sign, in the nominative (the subject)
- зданию = to the building, in the dative
Russian expresses to the building with the dative ending, not with a separate word like English to.
What is the dictionary form of зданию?
The dictionary form is здание meaning building.
Here the noun is changed from здание to зданию because it is in the dative singular.
A useful pattern:
- здание = nominative singular
- зданию = dative singular
Many neuter nouns ending in -ие form the dative singular in -ию.
Why is there no separate word for to in the sentence?