Questions & Answers about Он живёт в другом штате.
Why is it в другом штате and not в другой штат?
Because after в you use different cases depending on the meaning:
- в + Prepositional = in a place, when talking about location
- в + Accusative = into a place, when talking about movement
Here the sentence means he lives in another state, so it describes location, not motion. That is why both words change into the Prepositional case:
- другой → другом
- штат → штате
So:
- в другом штате = in another state
- but в другой штат would mean into another state
Why does другой become другом?
Другой is an adjective meaning other / another / different. It has to agree with the noun it describes in:
- gender
- number
- case
Since штат is:
- masculine
- singular
- here in the Prepositional case
the adjective must match it:
- nominative: другой штат
- prepositional: в другом штате
This is normal adjective agreement in Russian.