Word
Весь город знает эту историю.
Meaning
The whole city knows this story.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Questions & Answers about Весь город знает эту историю.
What does весь mean here and why is it declined like that?
весь means “whole” or “entire.” It’s an adjective modifying город and must agree with it in gender (masculine), number (singular) and case (nominative). Therefore we use весь (masc. nom. sg.). You could replace it with целый (as in целый город) without changing the meaning.
Why is город in the nominative case?
Because город is the subject of the verb знает. In Russian, the subject of a sentence stands in the nominative case.
Why is the verb знает in the 3rd‐person singular form, not plural?
Russian verbs agree with their subjects in person and number. Since город is a singular noun (the whole city, one entity), the verb takes the 3rd‐person singular form знает (he/it knows).
What case is эту историю, how is it formed, and why?
эту историю is in the accusative case because it’s the direct object of знает.
- эта история (feminine nominative)
- In the accusative, feminine inanimate nouns take the same ending as the nominative noun (историю vs история), while the demonstrative adjective эта changes to эту.