Breakdown of Сколько лошадей в деревне?
в
in / to (direction)
деревня
village
сколько
how much / how long / as much / as many as
лошадь
horse
Questions & Answers about Сколько лошадей в деревне?
Why does лошадей end in -ей?
After сколько (how many), we use the genitive plural for countable nouns. The dictionary form is лошадь (horse). Because it is a noun ending in a soft sign (-ь), its genitive plural ending becomes -ей, making it лошадей.
Does сколько always take the genitive plural?
It takes the genitive plural for things you can count, like лошадей (horses). If you are asking "how much" about something you cannot count, like water or time, сколько takes the genitive singular instead.
Why did деревня change to деревне?
Because we are expressing a location using the preposition в (in), the word must be in the prepositional case. For feminine nouns ending in -я like деревня, the prepositional ending changes to -е.
Where is the verb "are" in this sentence?
In Russian, the present tense of the verb "to be" (am, is, are) is almost always left out. The sentence literally reads as "How many horses in village?"