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В библиотеке семьдесят два словаря.

В библиотеке семьдесят два словаря.
There are seventy-two dictionaries in the library.
From Lesson 93:Tens to 100·Russian

Breakdown of В библиотеке семьдесят два словаря.

словарь
dictionary
в
in / to (direction)
библиотека
library
два
two
семьдесят
seventy

Questions & Answers about В библиотеке семьдесят два словаря.

Why is the word for dictionary (словаря) in the singular here? There are 72 of them!
In Russian, compound numbers follow the rule of their very last word. Since семьдесят два ends in два (two), the noun following it must be in the genitive singular case, making it словаря. It does not matter that 72 is a large amount!
Would we ever use две instead of два for 72?
Yes, if the noun being counted were feminine. Since словарь is a masculine noun (even though it ends in a soft sign), we use the masculine form два. If we were counting feminine things, like books (книга), it would be семьдесят две книги.
How is the word семьдесят built?
It literally means "seven tens." It combines семь (seven) and десят (an old form of the word for ten). You will see this same -десят pattern in 50, 60, 70, and 80.
Why does библиотеке end in -е?
Because it is telling us where something is located ("in the library"). This requires the prepositional case. The dictionary form is библиотека, and the -а changes to -е to show location.

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