Learn Hardcore Russian: В старом дворце гид рассказывает группе туристов о жизни людей, которые здесь жили. - In the old palace the guide tells a group of tourists about the lives of the people who lived here.

в
- Prepositional = being inside / within something:
- в доме – in the house
- в школе – at school (literally in school)
- в старом дворце – in the old palace (inside the building / complex)
на
- Prepositional = being on a surface or at an open area / event / institution understood as a place of activity:
- на столе – on the table
- на площади – on the square
- на вокзале – at the station
- на концерте – at a concert

A palace here is seen as an interior space you’re inside, so Russian uses в старом дворце.

Why do старом and дворце have these endings?

Both старом and дворце are in the prepositional case singular, used after в to show location (where?):

Noun дворец (palace), masculine, ends in a consonant:
- Nominative: дворец
- Prepositional (где?): в дворце
Adjective старый (old), masculine:
- Nominative: старый дворец
- Prepositional (must agree with noun): в старом дворце

So:

masculine adjective: старый → в старом
masculine noun: дворец → в дворце

The -ом and -е endings signal prepositional singular and show agreement of adjective with noun.

Can I change the word order and say Гид в старом дворце рассказывает группе туристов…? Is that still correct?

Yes, that’s grammatically correct. Possible orders:

В старом дворце гид рассказывает группе туристов…
– Starts with the place; emphasizes where this is happening.
Гид в старом дворце рассказывает группе туристов…
– Starts with the subject; more neutral, like typical English order.
Гид рассказывает в старом дворце группе туристов…
– Also possible; the location is less emphasized, just one more detail.

In Russian, word order is relatively flexible. Here it mostly changes what you present as the background vs the focus, not the basic meaning.

Why is it группе туристов and not группа туристов?

Because группе туристов is in the dative case, used for an indirect object – the recipient of the action рассказывать (to tell / to narrate to someone).

Verb: рассказывать (кому? о чём?) – to tell someone (dative) about something (prepositional)

So:

кому? (to whom?) → группе туристов (to a group of tourists)

Declension:

группа (group), nominative singular
- Dative singular: группе
туристы (tourists), nominative plural
- Here it’s in genitive plural (туристов) because it depends on группа.

So the phrase means literally: to a group of tourists.

Why is туристов in the genitive plural?

The pattern “группа кого?” (a group of whom?) requires genitive:

группа студентов – a group of students
стакан воды – a glass of water
кусок хлеба – a piece of bread

Here:

группа (кого?) туристов – a group of tourists

So:

Nominative plural: туристы
Genitive plural: туристов

Within the noun phrase группа туристов only группа changes case in the sentence (to dative: группе туристов); туристов stays genitive plural because it’s linked to группа, not to the verb directly.

Why is it о жизни людей and not о жизнях людей or о жизни человека?

The construction о жизни людей is very common and idiomatic. Points:

о + Prepositional
After о (about), the thing talked about is normally in the prepositional case:
- о жизни (about life)
- о книге (about the book)
- о дворце (about the palace)
So жизнь → о жизни (singular, prepositional).
Why singular жизнь, not plural жизни / жизнях?
Russian often uses singular + genitive plural to talk about the lives or life stories of a group:
- о жизни людей – about the life / lives of people
- literally “about the life of people”, but it really means their lives in general.
О жизнях людей (plural of жизнь in prepositional) is grammatically fine but sounds more technical or unusual; you’d use it when you really want to emphasize separate, distinct lives as countable items.
О жизни человека would mean about the life of a person / of one person, which is a different meaning.

So о жизни людей is the natural, general way to say about people’s lives.

Why is людей genitive and not людях, even though we have о before it?

The preposition о governs only жизнь, not люди.

Structure:

о жизни (чьей?) людей
- о жизни – about the life (prepositional)
- чьей? – whose life? → людей (of people, genitive plural)

So:

о жизни – о
- prepositional
людей – genitive plural depending on the noun жизнь (life of whom?)

If you said о людях, that would mean about people (with no mention of life):

о людях – about people (prepositional plural of люди)

But in this sentence the guide is not just talking about the people themselves, but specifically about the life of those people, hence о жизни людей.

What exactly does рассказывает mean here? How is it different from рассказал or расскажет?

Рассказывает is:

verb: рассказывать (imperfective)
person/number: 3rd person singular (he / she / it)
tense: present

So гид рассказывает ≈ the guide is telling / tells.

Aspect contrasts:

рассказывает (imperfective) – process, repeated / ongoing, or a general fact:
- Гид рассказывает группе туристов…
  The guide is telling / usually tells the tourists…
рассказал (perfective, past) – completed action:
- Гид рассказал группе туристов…
  The guide told (completed telling) the tourists…
расскажет (perfective, future) – single completed action in the future:
- Гид расскажет группе туристов…
  The guide will tell the tourists (at some later time).

In the original sentence, the focus is on what is happening now, or habitually in that situation, so the imperfective present рассказывает is used.

How does которые work here, and what does it agree with?

Которые is a relative pronoun meaning who / which / that, introducing a relative clause:

людей, которые здесь жили – the people who lived here

Agreement:

It refers back to людей (genitive plural of люди – people).
Которые is:
- plural
- in the nominative case here, because it’s the subject of the verb жили in the relative clause.

So:

который – masculine singular
которая – feminine singular
которое – neuter singular
которые – plural

In людей, которые здесь жили, the form которые matches людей in number (plural), but not in case – the case of которые is determined by its function inside its own clause (subject of жили).

Why is жили in the past tense if рассказывает is present?

Russian uses normal time logic between clauses:

Main clause (now): гид рассказывает – the guide is telling (present)
Relative clause (then): которые здесь жили – who lived here (past)

We’re talking now (or generally) about people whose life in this palace happened earlier, so жили must be past tense:

они жили – they lived

This is similar to English:
The guide is telling the tourists about the people who lived here.

Present in the main clause + past in the relative clause is perfectly natural in both languages.

Can we say которые жили здесь instead of которые здесь жили? Is there any difference?

Yes, you can say которые жили здесь, and it’s also correct. Both:

которые здесь жили
которые жили здесь

mean who lived here.

The difference is very slight and mostly about rhythm or tiny emphasis:

которые здесь жили can very slightly highlight the place (here, in this palace).
которые жили здесь is more neutral.

In everyday speech and writing, they are practically interchangeable.

What’s the difference between здесь and тут? Could we use тут here?

Здесь and тут both mean here, but:

здесь – more neutral / slightly formal, preferred in narration, writing, and careful speech.
тут – more colloquial, very common in everyday speech, sometimes a bit more emotional or “close”.

In this sentence, since it sounds like a neutral descriptive text (maybe from a textbook or guidebook), здесь is more natural.

You could say которые тут жили in spoken, informal Russian, and it would be understood, but in written standard style здесь is the better choice.

Why is гид masculine? What if the guide is a woman?

Гид is a noun that is grammatically masculine in Russian:

этот гид – this (male) guide
опытный гид – an experienced guide (masc. adjective)

If the actual person is a woman, Russian usually keeps the noun masculine but changes other agreement words (adjectives, past tense, etc.) to feminine if you are referring specifically to her:

Наш гид была очень интересной женщиной.
Our guide was a very interesting woman.
– гид (masculine noun)
– была, интересной (feminine forms, because we know the guide is female)

In the sentence В старом дворце гид рассказывает…, nothing shows the guide’s sex; grammatically it’s just “the guide”, masculine by default.