Breakdown of Родственники живут в деревне.
жить
to live
в
in / to (direction)
деревня
village
родственник
relative
Questions & Answers about Родственники живут в деревне.
Why does родственники end in -и instead of the usual masculine plural -ы?
The dictionary word is родственник (relative). Normally, masculine nouns that end in a consonant take -ы in the plural. However, Russian has a spelling rule: you can never write the letter ы after к (or after г, х, ж, ч, ш, щ). Because of this rule, we must use -и to make it plural.
Why is the verb живут here, and why does it have a в when the dictionary form is жить?
Живут is the "they" form of the verb, matching the plural subject родственники (the relatives). The verb жить (to live) is slightly irregular: when you conjugate it, a hidden -в- pops up in the root. So it becomes я живу (I live), он живёт (he lives), and они живут (they live).
Why does the word for village, деревня, change to деревне in this sentence?
Because it is answering the question "where?" (location). When expressing location after the preposition в (in), Russian requires the Prepositional case. For feminine nouns ending in -я like деревня, the ending changes to -е in the Prepositional case.
How should I pronounce the в in в деревне?
You should link the preposition в directly to the following word, pronouncing it as if it were one single word. Since the letter д is a voiced consonant (your vocal cords vibrate when making its sound), the в keeps its regular English "v" sound.
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