Question 1

Why does the sentence start with Нам (to us) instead of Мы (we)?

Accepted Answer

This is because of the word нужен (is needed). In Russian, you don't literally say "We need a bus." Instead, the structure is "To us is needed a bus." The person who needs something takes the Dative case, so мы becomes нам.

Question 2

Why is the word нужен used instead of нужно or нужна?

Accepted Answer

Нужен is a short adjective that has to match the gender of the thing that is needed. In this sentence, the thing needed is автобус (bus). Because автобус is a masculine noun, we use the masculine form нужен.

Question 3

Why do we use the plain counting numbers одиннадцать and двенадцать here instead of "eleventh" or "twelfth"?

Accepted Answer

Just like in English, when identifying a specific bus route, flight, or room, Russian uses the word номер (number) followed by the basic counting numbers (cardinal numbers). You don't need to use ordinal numbers (like "eleventh").

Question 4

Normally numbers change the ending of the noun they are attached to. Why doesn't автобус change here?

Accepted Answer

If you were counting the physical quantity of buses (e.g., "We need eleven buses"), the noun would change to the Genitive case: одиннадцать автобусов. But here, 11 and 12 are just the label of the route, not a quantity. The core sentence is simply "We need a bus", so автобус stays in its basic Nominative dictionary form.

Question 5

Why does одиннадцать have a double н in the middle?

Accepted Answer

The Russian suffix for "-teen" is -надцать. Because the number one (один) already ends in the letter н, sticking them together to make "eleven" results in a double consonant: один + -надцать = одиннадцать.

Нам нужен автобус номер одиннадцать или двенадцать.

Breakdown of Нам нужен автобус номер одиннадцать или двенадцать.

Questions & Answers about Нам нужен автобус номер одиннадцать или двенадцать.

Learn Нам нужен автобус номер одиннадцать или двенадцать and more in Russian