Breakdown of В городе живёт миллион студентов.
студент
student (m)
город
city
жить
to live
в
in / to (direction)
миллион
million
Questions & Answers about В городе живёт миллион студентов.
Why does студентов end in -ов?
The word студент (student) is a masculine noun ending in a consonant. Because it comes after a quantity word like миллион, it needs to be in the genitive plural case. For masculine nouns ending in a hard consonant, the genitive plural ending is -ов, making it студентов.
If there are a million students, why is the verb живёт (lives) in the singular instead of plural?
In Russian, words for large numbers like миллион (million) and тысяча (thousand) act like regular nouns. Grammatically, the subject of this sentence is the singular noun миллион, so the verb живёт takes the singular form. Literally, it translates to "A million of students lives."
Why is it в городе and not в город?
We use the Prepositional case (adding the -е ending) after the preposition в when talking about location (where something is happening). If we were talking about motion towards the city, like going into the city, we would use the Accusative case (в город).
Could I change the word order and say Миллион студентов живёт в городе?
Yes, that is grammatically correct! However, Russian often puts the most important or "new" information at the end of the sentence. Starting with the location (В городе) and ending with миллион студентов is a very natural way to emphasize what is in the city.
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