Breakdown of Сколько стоит медицинская страховка?
сколько
how much
медицинский
medical
страховка
the insurance
стоить
should / to be worth (doing)
Questions & Answers about Сколько стоит медицинская страховка?
Why is the verb стоит (singular) and not стоят (plural) here?
Because медицинская страховка (insurance policy/insurance) is grammatically singular (and the head noun страховка is singular).
Russian agrees the verb with the grammatical number of what is “costing” something:
- Сколько стоит страховка? (one policy) → стоит
- Сколько стоят страховки? (several policies) → стоят
- Сколько стоит билет? vs Сколько стоят билеты?
What case is медицинская страховка in, and why?
It’s nominative singular feminine.
- страховка is the subject of стоит (literally: How much does the insurance cost?), so it stays in the nominative.
- The adjective медицинская agrees with страховка in gender (feminine), number (singular), and case (nominative).
I thought сколько often requires the genitive. Why isn’t something in the genitive here?