Breakdown of Здесь нет принтера и бумаги.
и
and
здесь
here
нет
there is no / is not present
принтер
printer
бумага
paper
Questions & Answers about Здесь нет принтера и бумаги.
Why are we using принтера instead of just принтер?
The word нет (there is no) forces the nouns that follow it into the Genitive case. Since the dictionary form принтер is a masculine noun ending in a consonant, we add -а to the end to make the Genitive form принтера.
The dictionary word for paper is бумага. Why does it become бумаги and not бумагы?
To make the Genitive form of a feminine noun ending in -а, we usually change it to -ы. However, Russian has a strict 7-letter spelling rule: you can never write the letter ы after г, к, х, ж, ч, ш, or щ. Because бумага has a г before the ending, we must use -и instead, giving us бумаги.
Do I need to say нет twice to mean "no printer and no paper"?
No, Russian is efficient here! One нет covers both items. Because they are connected by и (and), the single нет applies to both принтера and бумаги, putting both of them into the Genitive case.
Why does the sentence start with Здесь instead of Нет?
In Russian, sentences about something existing (or not existing) usually start with the location. It is much more natural to set the scene with Здесь нет... (Here there is no...) rather than starting with Нет....
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