Questions & Answers about Гостиница в центре города.
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. Instead of saying "The hotel is in the centre", you simply say "Hotel in centre".
Why does центре end with an "e" instead of just being центр?
The word is in the Prepositional case because it follows the preposition в (in) to show a location. Most masculine nouns ending in a consonant, like центр, add an -е to the end to show where something is.
How does города mean "of the city"?
The dictionary form of the word for city is город. Adding the -а at the end puts it in the Genitive case. In Russian, the Genitive case often does the job of the English word "of" to show a relationship. So, центр города translates to "centre of the city".
How do we know it means "The" hotel and not "A" hotel?
Russian does not have articles like "a" or "the". You have to figure it out from context. Because this sentence is giving a specific location for a hotel we are presumably already talking about, "The hotel" makes the most sense here.