Breakdown of Я живу на севере.
я
I
жить
to live
на
on, at / by (transport) / to (a place) / to (in answer to)
север
north
Questions & Answers about Я живу на севере.
Why is there a в in живу when the dictionary form is жить?
The verb жить (to live) has a slightly irregular stem. When you conjugate it, a -в- is added before the endings. For the 'I' form, you add the standard -у ending to get живу. You will see this -в- in all its forms, like он живёт (he lives).
Why do we use на instead of в to say 'in the north'?
In Russian, you always use the preposition на (which normally means 'on') when talking about compass directions. So, instead of saying 'in the north', Russian literally says 'on the north' (на севере).
Why does the word for north (север) end with an -е here?
Because the sentence answers the question 'where?', the noun must be in the prepositional case to show location. For most masculine words that end in a consonant like север, you make this case by simply adding an -е to the end.
Why does the жи in живу sound a bit like жы?
The Russian letter ж is always pronounced with a 'hard' sound. There is a strict spelling rule that says you can never write the hard vowel ы after ж, so it must be spelled with и. However, because the ж is hard, your mouth naturally pronounces the vowel as if it were ы.
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