Learn Russian: Там парки и здания. - There are parks and buildings there.

In Russian, most masculine nouns ending in a consonant add -ы to become plural. However, парк ends in к. Because of a strict spelling rule, you can never write the letter ы after к, г, х, ш, ж, ч, or щ. Instead, you must use и. That is why парк becomes парки.

The word for 'buildings' is здания. How did the singular noun change to become plural?

The singular form is здание, which is a neuter noun ending in -е. To form the plural of regular neuter nouns, the ending changes: -о becomes -а, and -е (or -ие) becomes -я (or -ия). Following this pattern, the final -е in здание changes to -я, giving us здания.

Where is the verb 'are' in this sentence?

In Russian, the present tense forms of the verb 'to be' (am, is, are) are almost always left out. Instead of saying 'there are parks', you just put the words side by side: 'there parks' (Там парки).

The English translation says 'There are... there', but Russian only uses once. Why?