Breakdown of Студент живёт в общежитии.
студент
student (m)
жить
to live
в
in / to (direction)
общежитие
student hostel, dormitory
Questions & Answers about Студент живёт в общежитии.
Why does общежитии end in -ии instead of the usual -е for the Prepositional case?
The dictionary form of the word for hostel is общежитие, which ends in -ие. Usually, neuter nouns get an -е ending when answering the question where? (Prepositional case). However, nouns ending in -ия, -ий, or -ие are a special exception and change their ending to -ии instead.
The dictionary form for to live is жить. Where does the в in живёт come from?
The verb жить is slightly irregular. When we conjugate it in the present tense, a hidden -в- appears in the stem. Since студент acts as a he (third-person singular), we add the regular ending -ёт to that stem, giving us живёт.
Why is the root of живёт spelled with an и instead of an ы?
This is due to one of the most important spelling rules in Russian: after the letters ж, ш, ч, and щ, you must always write и, never ы. Even though the letter ж is always pronounced hard (making it sound like an ы when spoken), the written spelling must remain жи.
There is no word for the in front of студент. How do we know it means the student and not a student?
Russian does not have articles like the or a. The exact meaning comes entirely from context. Here, the translation says the student because the speaker is likely talking about a specific person already known to the listener. Depending on the conversation, it could just as easily mean A student lives in the hostel.