Breakdown of Здесь мало ресурсов, но много волонтёров.
здесь
here
много
a lot
мало
little
но
but
ресурс
resource
волонтёр
volunteer
Questions & Answers about Здесь мало ресурсов, но много волонтёров.
Why do both ресурсов and волонтёров end in -ов?
They are in the genitive plural case because they follow the quantity words мало (few) and много (many). When you state "how much" or "how many" of something there is, the noun following the quantifier takes the genitive case. For masculine nouns ending in a hard consonant (like ресурс and волонтёр), the genitive plural adds the ending -ов.
Where is the verb "are" in this sentence?
In Russian, the present tense of the verb "to be" is usually dropped. Furthermore, when focusing on the quantity of something using words like много or мало, you generally do not use the word есть (there is/are). You just state the location (Здесь) followed by the quantity.
I learned that мало means "little". Why does it translate to "few" here?
Мало can mean both "little" and "few" depending on the type of noun it describes. When used with uncountable things in the singular (like мало времени - little time), it means "little". Because ресурсов (resources) is a countable noun in the plural, мало translates to "few".
How do you pronounce the -ов ending on волонтёров and ресурсов?
The letter в at the very end of a Russian word gets devoiced, meaning it sounds like an "f". So, the ending -ов is pronounced like "af". Also, note that the letter ё in волонтёров is always stressed!
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