Breakdown of В субботу люди не работают.
не
not
работать
to work
люди
people
в
on / during (a time period)
суббота
Saturday
Questions & Answers about В субботу люди не работают.
Why does the word for Saturday end in -у here (субботу instead of суббота)?
To say "on" a certain day of the week, Russian uses the preposition в followed by the Accusative case. For feminine nouns ending in -а like суббота, the ending changes to -у in the Accusative case. So, в субботу means "on Saturday".
Why do we use в (in/at) instead of a word for "on"?
Prepositions rarely translate word-for-word between languages. In English, we say "on Saturday", but in Russian, the rule for days of the week is to always use в plus the Accusative case.
What is the singular form of люди (people)?
The singular form is человек (person). Люди is an irregular plural, just like "person" and "people" in English!
Why does the verb работают end in -ют?
Because the subject is люди (people), which is plural. Работать (to work) is a regular verb. To make it match "they" (3rd person plural), we drop the -ть from the dictionary form and add -ют.
Does the negative word не always go right before the verb?
Yes! To make a verb negative in Russian, you simply put не directly in front of it. There are no helper words like "don't" or "doesn't" in Russian. So "don't work" is just не работают.
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