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В нашем доме перерабатывают пластик и бумагу.

В нашем доме перерабатывают пластик и бумагу.
In our building they recycle plastic and paper.

Breakdown of В нашем доме перерабатывают пластик и бумагу.

дом
the house
в
in
и
and
наш
our
бумага
the paper
пластик
the plastic
перерабатывать
to overwork
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Questions & Answers about В нашем доме перерабатывают пластик и бумагу.

What does в нашем доме literally mean, and does дом refer to a house or an apartment building?

Literally, в нашем доме means in our house.

However, in real Russian usage, дом very often means an apartment building, not just a single-family house. So:

  • в нашем доме can be understood as:
    • in our house (if it’s an actual house), or
    • in our apartment building / in our block (very common meaning)

Context usually makes clear whether it’s a stand‑alone house or a multi‑apartment building. In a typical city context, most Russians will imagine an apartment building.

Why is it в нашем доме and not в наш дом?

Because the sentence describes a place where something happens (location), not a direction of movement.

In Russian:

  • в дом (+ accusative) = into the house / into the building (movement, direction)
    • Он вошёл в дом – He went into the house.
  • в доме (+ prepositional) = in the house / in the building (location)
    • Он в доме – He is in the house.

In your sentence, recycling happens inside the building, so Russian uses the prepositional case:

  • дом (nominative) → в доме (prepositional)
  • With the adjective: наш дом → в нашем доме

So в наш дом перерабатывают… would be ungrammatical here and would suggest movement into the house, which doesn’t fit the meaning.

Why does нашем have the ending -ем in в нашем доме?

Нашем is the prepositional singular form of the possessive adjective наш (our), and it has to agree with доме in:

  • gender: masculine (дом is masculine)
  • number: singular
  • case: prepositional

The pattern is:

  • Masculine/neuter, prepositional singular: в моём доме, в твоём доме, в нашем доме, в этом доме.

So:

  • наш дом (nominative)
  • в нашем доме (prepositional)

The ending -ем is just the regular prepositional ending for a masculine possessive adjective here.

Why is доме used instead of дом?

Дом is in the prepositional case because of the preposition в with the meaning “in”.

Base form (nominative):

  • дом – house, building

Prepositional singular:

  • в доме – in the house / in the building

When you say where something happens (location) with в, you normally use the prepositional case:

  • в городе – in the city
  • в школе – at school / in the school
  • в доме – in the house / in the building

So the combination в доме is required by grammar, and the adjective must match: в нашем доме.

Why is перерабатывают in the third person plural when there is no subject mentioned?

Russian often uses a third person plural verb with no explicit subject to mean a general they / people / someone. It’s similar to English sentences like:

  • “In our building, they recycle plastic and paper.”
  • “In this shop, they sell good bread.”

In Russian:

  • В нашем доме перерабатывают пластик и бумагу.
    Literally: “In our building (they) recycle plastic and paper.”

This is an active verb form, but the subject is left out because it’s either unknown or not important (it could be building management, a company, the residents, etc.).

So перерабатывают is 3rd person plural (“they recycle”), but the “they” is implicit and generic.

Is this sentence active or passive? How would you say it using a more clearly passive form?

Grammatically, the original sentence is active:

  • (They) перерабатывают пластик и бумагу. – (They) recycle plastic and paper.

But because the subject is omitted and generic, it can feel similar to a passive idea in English.

A more obviously passive version in Russian would be:

  • В нашем доме перерабатываются пластик и бумага.
    “In our building, plastic and paper are recycled.”

Here:

  • перерабатываются is the reflexive passive form (3rd person plural).

Both sentences are natural, but:

  • В нашем доме перерабатывают пластик и бумагу. – focuses more on the action that “they” do (generic “they”).
  • В нашем доме перерабатываются пластик и бумага. – focuses more on plastic and paper as things being recycled.
What aspect is перерабатывают, and why not переработают?

Перерабатывают comes from the imperfective verb перерабатывать.

  • Imperfective (перерабатывать) is used for:
    • regular, repeated actions: something we do in general
    • processes, ongoing actions
  • Perfective (переработать) is used for:
    • a single, completed action
    • the result of an action

In the sentence:

  • В нашем доме перерабатывают пластик и бумагу.
    The meaning is “they recycle plastic and paper (as a regular practice).”

So the imperfective present перерабатывают is the natural choice for a habitual action.

If you said:

  • В нашем доме переработают пластик и бумагу.

that would sound like “they will recycle plastic and paper (on a particular occasion / at some point in the future, finishing the job).”
That is future perfective and does not express a regular rule or practice.

Why is it бумагу and not бумага?

Бумага is a feminine noun. In your sentence, it is a direct object of the verb перерабатывают, so it must be in the accusative case.

Declension (singular):

  • Nominative: бумага – paper (as subject)
  • Accusative: бумагу – paper (as direct object)

So:

  • Бумага лежит на столе. – The paper is lying on the table. (subject → nominative)
  • Они перерабатывают бумагу. – They recycle paper. (object → accusative)

That’s why the sentence has бумагу.

Note that пластик is also in the accusative, but for masculine inanimate nouns the accusative form is the same as the nominative:

  • Nominative: пластик
  • Accusative: пластик

So you see a change with бумага → бумагу, but not with пластик.

Could the word order be Пластик и бумагу перерабатывают в нашем доме? Does that change the meaning?

Yes, that word order is grammatically correct:

  • Пластик и бумагу перерабатывают в нашем доме.

The basic meaning stays the same: “Plastic and paper are recycled in our building.”

Word order in Russian is flexible and is often used for emphasis. Roughly:

  • В нашем доме перерабатывают пластик и бумагу.
    Starts with в нашем доме, so it emphasizes the location: In our building, (they) recycle plastic and paper.

  • Пластик и бумагу перерабатывают в нашем доме.
    Starts with пластик и бумагу, so it emphasizes what is recycled (plastic and paper), and then specifies where.

Both are natural; the difference is mainly what you present as the “starting point” of the sentence.

How would you say the same idea with мы (we), instead of the impersonal “they”?

You can make the subject explicit:

  • В нашем доме мы перерабатываем пластик и бумагу.
    “In our building, we recycle plastic and paper.”

Here:

  • мы перерабатываем – we recycle (1st person plural, imperfective)

This sounds more personal and collective, suggesting that the residents themselves (including the speaker) actively participate.

Without мы:

  • В нашем доме перерабатывают пластик и бумагу.
    stays more neutral and doesn’t say exactly who does it.
How do you pronounce the whole sentence?

Russian with stress marks:

  • В на́шем до́ме перераба́тывают пла́стик и бума́гу.

Approximate phonetic transcription (IPA):

  • /v ˈnaʂɨm ˈdomʲɪ pʲɪrʲɪrɐˈbatɨvət ˈplastʲɪk i bʊˈmagʊ/

Simple Latin-letter approximation with stressed syllables in caps:

  • v NA-shem DO-me pere-ra-BA-ty-vayut PLA-stik i bu-MA-gu

Key points:

  • в is pronounced like English v.
  • нашем – the ш is like English sh; stress on на́.
  • доме – stress on до́.
  • перерабатывают – main stress on ба́; the ending -ют is like yoot.
  • пластик – stress on пла́.
  • бумагу – stress on ма́.