Дети верили в магию.

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Breakdown of Дети верили в магию.

• ребёнок: the child
• верить: to believe
• магия: magic

Questions & Answers about Дети верили в магию.

What does дети mean, and why isn’t it something like ребёнки?

Дети means children. It is the irregular plural of ребёнок (child).

So:

• ребёнок = child
• дети = children

Russian has a number of irregular plural forms, and this is one of the most common ones.

In this sentence, дети is in the nominative plural, because it is the subject of the sentence.

Why is the verb верили in that form?

Верили is the past tense plural form of верить (to believe).

It matches the subject дети, which is plural.

Compare:

• он верил = he believed
• она верила = she believed
• они верили = they believed

Since дети = children, the verb must also be plural: верили.

Why does the past tense end in -ли here?

In Russian, past tense verbs agree with the subject in gender and number, not person.

The past tense endings are:

• -л for masculine singular
• -ла for feminine singular
• -ло for neuter singular
• -ли for plural

So верили is plural because дети is plural.