Breakdown of Люди часто спорят о чужих деньгах.
часто
often
о
about (о, об, обо)
спорить
to argue
деньги
money
люди
people
чужой
someone else's
Questions & Answers about Люди часто спорят о чужих деньгах.
Why does the word for money end in -ах here (о чужих деньгах)?
The preposition о (about) always requires the Prepositional case. The word for money, деньги, is always plural in Russian. In the Prepositional plural, nouns usually take the ending -ах (or -ях). So, деньги becomes деньгах.
Why does чужих end in -их instead of -ых for a plural adjective?
Чужих comes from the adjective чужой (someone else's). Normally, plural adjectives take -ых in the Prepositional case. However, the Russian spelling rules say you can never write the letter ы after ж, ш, ч, щ, г, к, or х. Since the stem ends in ж, we must use -их instead.
How exactly does чужих translate to "other people's"?
The adjective чужой means "belonging to a stranger", "foreign", or "alien". Russian does not have a direct word-for-word equivalent to the English phrase "other people's", so it uses чужой to describe anything that belongs to someone else.
Why does the verb спорят end in -ят?
The infinitive is спорить (to argue). Because it ends in -ить, it belongs to the second conjugation group. When talking about "they" (люди / people), second conjugation verbs take the ending -ат or -ят, unlike first conjugation verbs which take -ут or -ют.
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