Word
На лестнице сидят два человека.
Meaning
Two people are sitting on the staircase.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Questions & Answers about На лестнице сидят два человека.
What case is used in на лестнице, and why?
На лестнице uses the prepositional case because after the preposition на to indicate location (answering где?) nouns take this case.
Why does the verb сидят appear in the plural form here?
Because the subject два человека refers to two individuals, which is plural, so the verb must agree in number and takes the 3rd person plural form сидят instead of сидит.
Why is the noun человека in the genitive singular form after два, rather than nominative plural люди?
In Russian, after numerals 2, 3, and 4, the counted noun is in the genitive singular. Therefore, человека (genitive singular) is used with два, not люди (nominative plural).
Can we change the word order in this sentence, for instance putting два человека first?
Yes. Russian has flexible word order. Два человека сидят на лестнице means the same, though placing на лестнице at the start emphasizes where they are rather than who.
Could we use instead of , and are there any differences?