Breakdown of Я не понимаю, сколько деталей в этом договоре.
не
not
я
I
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
понимать
to understand
в
in / to (direction)
сколько
how much / how long / as much / as many as
договор
contract / treaty
деталь
detail
Questions & Answers about Я не понимаю, сколько деталей в этом договоре.
Why is the word for details, деталей, in that specific form after сколько?
The word сколько (how many) requires the following countable noun to be in the genitive plural case. The singular dictionary form is деталь (detail), and its genitive plural is деталей.
How do I form the genitive plural for a word like деталь?
Деталь is a feminine noun that ends in a soft sign (-ь). A handy rule to remember is that for nouns ending in a soft sign, whether they are masculine or feminine, the genitive plural is formed by replacing the soft sign with the ending -ей.
Why is there a comma before сколько?
In Russian, you must always separate a main sentence from a dependent phrase with a comma. Whenever you connect two parts of a sentence with a question word like сколько, что, or где, you have to put a comma right before that question word.
Why is it в этом договоре rather than в этот договор?
This part of the sentence describes a location (inside the contract), so it requires the prepositional case. The masculine noun договор takes the -е ending, and the matching word этот (this) changes to its prepositional form, этом.
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