Questions & Answers about Я вижу несколько друзей в парке.
Why is друзей in the genitive case instead of the nominative друзья?
When you use a quantity word like несколько (“a few”), Russian grammar requires the following noun to be in the genitive plural. So друзья (nominative plural) becomes друзей (genitive plural), even though the whole phrase functions as an accusative object.
What’s the role of несколько, and how is it different from немного or пару?
- несколько means “a few” and is used with countable nouns, triggering genitive plural.
- немного means “a little” or “not much” and is used with uncountable (mass) nouns, also taking genitive.
- пару means “a couple of” (colloquial) and is often used with countable nouns in their nominative or genitive shape, but it feels more informal and implies exactly two.
Why do we say в парке instead of на парк?
The preposition в plus the prepositional case (здесь парке) indicates location inside or at an enclosed/defined place: “in the park.” на with a location is reserved for surfaces or open spaces (e.g., на улице, на стадионе) and isn’t used with парк.
Can I change the word order to В парке я вижу несколько друзей?