Learn Hardcore Russian: В доме нет воды.

В = “in”
доме = prepositional case of дом (“house”), so “in the house”
нет = “there is not” / “there is no” (existential negation)
воды = genitive case of вода (“water”), used after нет
Literal word-for-word: “In house there is no water.” Natural English translation: “There is no water in the house.”

Why is доме in the prepositional case instead of the nominative?

The preposition в when indicating location (not movement) requires the prepositional case. So в доме means “inside the house.” If you said “into the house,” you’d use the accusative (в дом), but here it’s “in the house,” hence prepositional доме.

What role does нет play, and why don’t we use не есть to negate existence?

Нет is a special word for existential negation in Russian: it means “there is no” or “there isn’t.” You never say не есть to mean “there isn’t.” Instead, you use нет + genitive to express absence of something.

Why is воды in the genitive case rather than the nominative?

After нет, the thing that’s missing must be in the genitive case. This is a fixed pattern for expressing “no [something].” That’s why вода becomes genitive воды.

Why are there no articles (“a,” “the”) in this Russian sentence?

Russian has no articles. Definiteness or indefiniteness is understood from context. Here в доме нет воды simply means “there’s no water in the house” (with “the” understood if you’re talking about a specific house).

How would you express the opposite idea, “There is water in the house”?

Use the existential есть + nominative:
В доме есть вода.
Here вода stays in the nominative because you’re affirming its existence rather than denying it.

Can I change the word order, for example say Нет воды в доме?

Yes. Нет воды в доме is perfectly correct and means the same. Russian word order is flexible; moving нет + воды to the front emphasizes “no water” more strongly.

Is it okay to say В доме нету воды? What’s нету?

Нету is a colloquial variant of нет common in speech. So В доме нету воды is informal but widely used. In formal writing or speech, stick with нет.

Can I use a different verb like отсутствует instead of нет to say “there is no water in the house”?

Yes, you can say В доме отсутствует вода. This uses the verb отсутствовать (“to be absent”) and is more formal. But in everyday conversation, нет воды + genitive is by far the most common way.