Breakdown of У нас есть много хороших кандидатов.
мы
we
хороший
good
много
a lot
у
at, by
есть
is, there is, to have
кандидат
candidate
Questions & Answers about У нас есть много хороших кандидатов.
Why are хороших and кандидатов in the Genitive plural?
After the word много (many), you must use the Genitive plural case for countable nouns and their matching adjectives. Quantifiers like много, мало (few), and сколько (how many) trigger this case, similar to the English idea of having a lot 'of' something.
Why does the adjective хороших end in -их instead of the standard -ых?
This is due to the 7-letter spelling rule. In Russian, you can never write the letter ы after ш (as well as г, к, х, ж, ч, щ). Because the stem of 'good' ends in ш, we have to swap the standard -ых ending for -их.
How do we get the ending -ов on кандидатов?
The dictionary form is кандидат, which is a masculine noun ending in a hard consonant (т). The standard rule for making these specific masculine nouns Genitive plural is simply to add -ов.
As a refresher, why do we use У нас есть to mean 'We have'?
Russian does not typically use a direct verb for 'to have'. Instead, it uses the formula У (by/at) + Genitive case + есть (is/exists). Literally, У нас есть translates to 'By us there is'. Нас is the Genitive form of мы (we).
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