Breakdown of Деревня на юге.
на
on, at / by (transport) / to (a place) / to (in answer to)
деревня
village
юг
south
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Questions & Answers about Деревня на юге.
Why isn't there a word for "is" in this sentence?
In Russian, the verb "to be" is skipped in the present tense. You literally just say "Village in south" and the word "is" is naturally understood.
Why do we use на instead of в for "in"? Doesn't на mean "on"?
You are right that на usually means "on" and в means "in". However, Russian uses на with compass directions. To say "in the south," "in the north," "in the east," or "in the west," you must always use на.
Why does the word for south (юг) have an -е at the end here?
Because we are talking about a location (where the village is), the word юг changes to the prepositional case. For most masculine words that end in a consonant like юг, you simply add an -е to the end to show location, making it юге.
How do we know it means "the village" and not "a village"?
Russian does not have articles like "a" or "the". You have to figure out which one makes sense based on the context. Here, we are stating a specific fact about where a particular village is located, so "the village" is the most natural translation in English.