Learn Hardcore Russian: В приюте живут собаки и кошки.

In modern everyday speech, on its own, приют often suggests an animal shelter (especially if the context is dogs and cats), but it can also mean:

приют для животных – animal shelter
приют для бездомных – shelter for the homeless
historically/less commonly: a kind of orphanage or children’s home (детский приют)

So in this sentence, because we mention собаки и кошки, it’s naturally understood as an animal shelter.

What case is приюте, and why does it end in -е?

Приюте is in the prepositional case (предложный падеж).

Key points:

The base form (nominative singular) is приют.
Masculine nouns ending in a consonant usually form the prepositional singular with -е:
- дом → в доме (in the house)
- город → в городе (in the city)
- приют → в приюте (in the shelter)

You use the prepositional case after в and на when you talk about location:

в приюте – in the shelter
на улице – on the street

Why is it в приюте and not во приюте or на приюте?

в vs во
- во is just a variant of в, used mainly before certain consonant clusters or words starting with в/ф to make pronunciation easier:
  - в
    - второй → во второй
  - в
    - вход → во вход (rare)
- приют doesn’t start with a difficult sound combination, so standard usage is в приюте, not во приюте.
в vs на
- в is used for being inside an enclosed or defined space:
  - в доме, в школе, в парке, в приюте
- на is used for surfaces, open areas, events, or some idiomatic locations:
  - на улице, на столе, на работе, на ферме

An animal shelter is seen as a place you are in, so в приюте is natural.

Why is the verb живут used here? Could it have been есть or no verb at all?

Живут is the 3rd person plural form of жить – “to live”.

The sentence literally says: “In the shelter live dogs and cats.”
This emphasizes that the dogs and cats live there as residents, not just that they happen to be there.

Alternatives:

В приюте есть собаки и кошки.
- Literally: “In the shelter there are dogs and cats.”
- This only states their existence/presence, not the idea of residence.
В приюте собаки и кошки.
- Possible in casual speech, but feels incomplete; Russian normally needs a verb or есть to sound neutral and clear.

So живут is chosen to stress that the animals live in the shelter as their place of residence.

What is the subject of the sentence? Is the word order “in the shelter live dogs and cats” normal in Russian?

The grammatical subject is собаки и кошки (dogs and cats).
The verb is живут (live).
The phrase в приюте (in the shelter) is an adverbial modifier of place.

Word order in Russian is flexible. Both are correct:

В приюте живут собаки и кошки.
- Focuses first on the place: “In the shelter live dogs and cats.”
- Good if you were already talking about the shelter.
Собаки и кошки живут в приюте.
- Focuses first on who lives there: “Dogs and cats live in the shelter.”
- Good if you were already talking about the animals.

So yes, starting with в приюте is completely normal Russian. It shifts the emphasis to the location.

How is this different from Собаки и кошки живут в приюте?

Both sentences are grammatically correct and mean essentially the same thing.

В приюте живут собаки и кошки.
- Topic/starting point: the shelter.
- Often sounds like: “As for the shelter, dogs and cats live there.”
Собаки и кошки живут в приюте.
- Topic/starting point: the animals.
- Often sounds like: “As for the dogs and cats, they live in the shelter.”

In many contexts they are interchangeable; the difference is mostly in information flow and emphasis, not in core meaning.

Could I also say В приюте есть собаки и кошки? What’s the difference in meaning?

Yes, you can say:

В приюте есть собаки и кошки.

Differences:

В приюте живут собаки и кошки.
- Stresses ongoing residence.
- Implies that the dogs and cats live there as their home/base.
В приюте есть собаки и кошки.
- Neutral statement of existence/presence.
- Similar to English “There are dogs and cats in the shelter.”
- Does not strongly focus on the idea of “they live there,” just that such animals are there.

Both are correct; choose живут when you want to emphasize “live there,” and есть when you just want to say “there are”.

Why are собаки and кошки in this form, not собак and кошек?

The forms here are nominative plural:

собака (a dog) → собаки (dogs)
кошка (a cat) → кошки (cats)

We use the nominative case for the subject of the sentence:

Собаки и кошки – subject
живут – verb

The forms собак and кошек are genitive plural. They’re used in other contexts, for example:

After numbers ≥ 5:
- пять собак, много кошек
After certain verbs and prepositions, or when indicating absence:
- нет собак и кошек – there are no dogs and cats

Here we need the subject form, so собаки и кошки (nominative plural) is correct.

What tense and aspect is живут, and how would I say “lived” or “will live”?

Живут is:

Present tense
3rd person plural
From the imperfective verb жить (“to live” – ongoing, repeated, or habitual action).

Basic forms of жить:

я живу – I live
ты живёшь – you live (sg, informal)
он/она живёт – he/she lives
мы живём – we live
вы живёте – you live (pl/formal)
они живут – they live

Past and future:

они жили – they lived
они будут жить – they will live

So, for example:

В приюте жили собаки и кошки. – Dogs and cats lived in the shelter.
В приюте будут жить собаки и кошки. – Dogs and cats will live in the shelter.

Why isn’t there a word for “there” like in English “There are dogs and cats in the shelter”?

English often uses a dummy “there” to introduce existence:

There are dogs and cats in the shelter.

Russian doesn’t need a dummy subject like this. Instead, it can start with a place or object directly:

В приюте живут собаки и кошки.
Literally: “In the shelter live dogs and cats.”

If you really want to use там (“there” in a spatial sense), you can, but it changes the nuance:

Там, в приюте, живут собаки и кошки.
- “There, in the shelter, dogs and cats live.”
- This points to a specific place already known or visible.

So Russian doesn’t omit “there” – it simply doesn’t need a dummy “there” at all.

How should I pronounce В приюте живут собаки и кошки? Any tricky spots?

Key pronunciation points (stressed syllables in bold):

в прию́те – [v pree‑YOO‑tye]
- в
  - п combine smoothly: say them together [fp]-like.
- ю after й gives a clear “yoo” sound: прию́ = pri‑YOO.
- Stress on ю́.
живу́т – [zhi‑VOOT]
- жи is always pronounced like “zhi” (like the “s” in “measure”).
- Stress on у́.
соба́ки – [sa‑BA‑kee]
- Stress on ба.
ко́шки – КО́‑shki
- Stress on ко́.

Natural rhythm:
В прию́те жи‑ву́т соба́ки и ко́шки.

Try to connect words smoothly, not pausing after в.

Since собака is grammatically feminine, does собаки always mean “female dogs”?

No. In Russian, grammatical gender and biological sex are not always the same.

собака is grammatically feminine, but in everyday speech it can refer to any dog, male or female.
собаки (plural) usually just means “dogs” in general.

If you specifically want to say “male dog” or “female dog”, you can say:

кобель – male dog (often used in breeding contexts)
сука – female dog (neutral in technical/breeding speech, but can be very rude as an insult to a person)

In this sentence, собаки simply means dogs, with no specific reference to sex.