Breakdown of В этих комментариях люди спорят о новых фильмах.
новый
new
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
фильм
movie
в
in / to (direction)
о
about (о, об, обо)
спорить
to argue
люди
people
комментарий
comment
Questions & Answers about В этих комментариях люди спорят о новых фильмах.
Why do the nouns комментариях and фильмах have different endings if they are in the same case?
Both are in the prepositional plural, but they take different endings based on their dictionary forms. Фильм ends in a hard consonant, so it adds -ах. Комментарий ends in -й (a soft sound), so it changes to the soft ending -ях.
Why do the words этих and новых end in -их and -ых instead of -ах?
Этих (these) and новых (new) behave like adjectives, which follow different rules than nouns. In the prepositional plural, they take -ых if they have a hard stem (like новый becoming новых) and -их if they have a soft stem or are special pronouns (like этот becoming этих).
Why are there two different prepositions, в and о, if both trigger the prepositional case here?
В means "in" and tells us where this is happening (in the comments). О means "about" and tells us the topic of their argument (about new films). Both prepositions require the prepositional case, which is why everything except the subject and verb is in the prepositional plural!
Why is the verb form спорят and not спорют?
The verb спорить (to argue) ends in -ить, which means it belongs to the second conjugation group. For "they" (они or люди), these verbs take the ending -ят (or -ат), rather than the -ют ending used by first conjugation verbs.
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