Breakdown of Нам нравятся старые картины и новые романы.
и
and
мы
we
новый
new
старый
old
нравиться
to please / to appeal
картина
picture / painting
роман
novel
Questions & Answers about Нам нравятся старые картины и новые романы.
Why does the sentence start with Нам instead of Мы for 'We'?
In Russian, expressing likes works differently than in English. Instead of 'We like paintings', the structure is literally 'Paintings are pleasing to us.' Нам is the dative form of мы (we), meaning 'to us.'
Why is the verb нравятся used here instead of нравится?
Because the things being liked are plural! In this structure, the things you like are the grammatical subjects doing the 'pleasing'. Since you like plural items (картины и романы), you must use the plural form нравятся. If it were just one painting, you would use the singular нравится.
Why do both adjectives старые and новые end in -ые?
In this sentence structure, the things being liked are in the nominative (dictionary) case. Because they are plural, their matching adjectives take the plural nominative ending, which is usually -ые or -ие.
Both картины (paintings) and романы (novels) end in -ы. Do they have the same gender?
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