Questions & Answers about В комнате никого нет.
What is the word-for-word structure of В комнате никого нет?
A very literal breakdown is:
- в = in
- комнате = room in the prepositional case, so in the room
- никого = no one / nobody in a non-nominative form
- нет = there is not / there isn’t
So the structure is roughly:
In the room, there is nobody.
That is why a natural English translation is There is nobody in the room or No one is in the room.
Why is комната written as комнате?
Because after в when it means in a place, Russian usually uses the prepositional case.
- dictionary form: комната = room
- prepositional singular: в комнате = in the room
This is a very common pattern:
- в доме = in the house
- в школе = in the school
- в комнате = in the room
So комнате is not a different word; it is the same noun in the case required by в for location.
Why is it никого, not никто?