Breakdown of Сколько соли в соусе?
в
in / to (direction)
соль
salt
сколько
how much / how long / as much / as many as
соус
sauce
Questions & Answers about Сколько соли в соусе?
Why is the word for salt written as соли instead of соль?
The word сколько (how much) requires the noun following it to be in the Genitive case, acting like "how much of salt". Соль is a feminine noun that ends in a soft sign (-ь), so its ending changes to -и in the Genitive case to become соли.
How do I know if a word ending in -ь, like соль, is masculine or feminine to apply the right case ending?
Unfortunately, there is no strict rule for most nouns ending in a soft sign (-ь)—you just have to memorize their gender. Соль is feminine. If it were a masculine noun ending in -ь, its Genitive ending would be -я instead of -и.
Why does соус become соусе in this sentence?
Because it indicates a location ("in the sauce"). When the preposition в (in) shows where something is located, the noun takes the Prepositional case. For a regular masculine noun ending in a consonant like соус, we add -е to get соусе.
Where is the word for "is" in this Russian sentence?
In Russian, the present tense of the verb "to be" (am, is, are) is almost always skipped. A literal translation of this sentence is simply "How much salt in sauce?".