В слове «гора» первая буква — согласная, а вторая — гласная.

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Breakdown of В слове «гора» первая буква — согласная, а вторая — гласная.

• слово: the word
• а: and
• первый: first

Questions & Answers about В слове «гора» первая буква — согласная, а вторая — гласная.

Why is it в слове, not в слово?

Because в means in here, so it takes the prepositional case for location.

• слово = dictionary form
• в слове = in the word

If в meant movement into, Russian would normally use the accusative instead, but that is not the meaning here.

Why does гора stay гора instead of changing case too?

Because the sentence is talking about the word гора as a word, not using it normally inside the sentence.

In Russian, when a word is being mentioned or analyzed, it is usually kept in its citation form, especially when it appears after слово:

• в слове гора
• в слове «гора»

So гора is not acting like an ordinary noun here; it is the object of discussion.

Why is гора written in « »?

Those are standard Russian quotation marks, often called guillemets.

Here they show that гора is being mentioned as a word form, not used with its normal meaning. English does the same kind of thing when we write something like In the word “mountain”...

In Russian print, « » is very common and standard.