Breakdown of Большинство этих дорогих машин — наши.
машина
car
наш
our
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
дорогой
expensive
большинство
majority
Questions & Answers about Большинство этих дорогих машин — наши.
Why do этих and дорогих end in -их?
They are in the genitive plural case. The word большинство (most/majority) requires the things being counted to be in the genitive case. Since we are talking about plural cars, the demonstrative pronoun (этих) and the adjective (дорогих) both take the genitive plural ending -их.
Why is it дорогих and not дорогых?
This is due to the 7-letter spelling rule. You cannot write the letter ы after г, к, х, ж, ч, ш, or щ. Because the stem of дорогой ends in г, the standard genitive plural ending -ых changes to -их.
Where did the ending go on the word машин?
машин is the genitive plural form of the feminine noun машина. Most feminine nouns ending in -а drop their ending completely in the genitive plural, leaving what we call a 'zero ending'.
If большинство is a singular neuter noun, why is наши (ours) in the plural?
This is a common Russian shortcut based on meaning. When words like большинство (majority) are followed by a plural noun like машин, the rest of the sentence often matches that plural meaning rather than the strict grammar of the singular word большинство. So, the predicate becomes the plural наши instead of the neuter singular наше.
Why is there a dash before наши?
In Russian, the present tense verbs for 'am,' 'is,' and 'are' are usually skipped. When equating two parts of a sentence (like the subject and what it is), a dash is often used in writing to stand in for the missing 'are'.
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