Word
Я вижу несколько огромных машин.
Meaning
I see several huge cars.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Я вижу несколько огромных машин.
Why is the phrase огромных машин in the genitive case if it is the direct object of вижу (I see)?
Normally, a direct object is in the accusative case. However, the word несколько (several) is a quantifier. In Russian, words that express quantity—like несколько, много (a lot), and numbers 5 or more—require the adjectives and nouns that follow them to be in the genitive plural.
How do we choose the ending -ых for огромных?
The dictionary form of the adjective is огромный (huge). In the genitive plural, adjectives take either -ых or -их. Because the letter right before the ending is н, which is a hard consonant, we use the standard hard ending -ых.
Why does the word машин look like it is missing its ending?
The dictionary form is машина, which is a feminine noun ending in -а. To form the genitive plural for most feminine nouns ending in -а, you simply drop the final -а. This leaves the word with what we call a 'zero ending'.
How would this sentence change if I just wanted to say 'I see huge cars' without the word 'several'?