Breakdown of Университет на западе.
на
on, at / by (transport) / to (a place) / to (in answer to)
университет
university
запад
west
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Questions & Answers about Университет на западе.
Why is there no word for "is" in this sentence?
In Russian, the present tense of the verb "to be" is almost always left out. So, Университет на западе literally translates to "University on west," but it perfectly means "The university is in the west."
Why do we use на instead of в for "in the west"?
In Russian, compass directions (north, south, east, west) always take the preposition на when talking about location. You will always say на западе (in the west) or на севере (in the north) instead of using в.
Why does the word for west (запад) have an -е at the end here?
When we talk about where something is located using в or на, the noun needs to be in the Prepositional case. For most masculine nouns ending in a consonant, like запад, you form this case by adding -е to the end, making it западе.
How do we know it means "the" university and not "a" university?
Russian doesn't have articles like "a" or "the." You have to figure it out from the context. Usually, if the noun is at the very beginning of the sentence as the main topic, it translates best with "the."