Questions & Answers about Нам нравятся новые игры.
Why does the sentence use нам instead of мы for "We"?
When talking about things you like in Russian, the sentence structure is backwards compared to English. Instead of saying "We like new games," you literally say "To us are pleasing new games." Нам is the dative case form of мы (we), which translates to "to us."
Why does the verb end in -ятся (нравятся) instead of -ится (нравится)?
The verb must match the thing being liked, because grammatically, the liked thing is the subject doing the action. Since новые игры (new games) is plural, we use the plural verb form нравятся (are pleasing). If you only liked one game, you would use the singular нравится.
What case is новые игры in?
It is in the nominative case (the basic dictionary form used for subjects). Because the Russian structure literally means "New games are pleasing to us," the games are the grammatical subject of the sentence, not the object.
The singular word for game is игра. Why does the plural игры end in -и instead of the usual -ы?
This is a great example of the 7-letter spelling rule! Normally, feminine words ending in -а change to -ы in the plural. However, Russian spelling rules state you can never write the letter ы after г, к, х, ж, ч, ш, or щ. Because of the г, we have to use и instead, giving us игры.
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