Questions & Answers about Люди любят деньги.
I learned that the word for "person" is человек. Is люди its plural?
Yes! In Russian, the word for "people" (люди) is a completely different word from "person" (человек). This is a highly irregular plural, but it is very similar to how "person" changes to "people" in English.
Why does the verb любят end in -ят here?
Because the subject, люди (people), is plural. The verb любить (to love) belongs to the second conjugation group. When the subject is "they" (3rd person plural), these verbs take the ending -ят (or -ат). If it were just one person, the verb would be любит.
In English, "money" is a singular word (we say "money is"). Is it singular in Russian too?
No, деньги is always a plural noun in Russian! Even though we treat it as a single concept in English, in Russian you must always use plural verbs and adjectives with it. You are effectively saying "moneys are".
Why doesn't деньги change its ending since it is the object being loved?
It actually is in the accusative case here, which is used for the direct object of an action! However, for inanimate (non-living) nouns in the plural, the accusative case looks exactly the same as the nominative (dictionary) case. Because money isn't alive, деньги keeps its dictionary form.
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