В магазине я купил пару носков.

I

Breakdown of В магазине я купил пару носков.

• в: in
• магазин: the store
• купить: to buy

Questions & Answers about В магазине я купил пару носков.

Why is магазине in the prepositional case, not the accusative?

In Russian, the preposition в can require two different cases:

• Prepositional (locative) when you indicate being “inside” or “at” a place.
• Accusative when you indicate movement “into” a place.
  Here, в магазине means “in the store” (location), so you use the prepositional case.

Why is пару used instead of пара?

Пара is the dictionary (nominative) form. When you make it a direct object in the sentence, you need the accusative case. Since пара is a feminine noun ending in -а, its accusative singular form is пару.

Why is носков in the genitive plural, not the accusative?

The structure пара X (“a pair of X”) always takes X in the genitive. Even though носки (socks) in the accusative plural would look the same as the nominative plural (носки), here you need the genitive plural носков to express “of socks.”

Why does the past‐tense verb appear as купил and not купила?