Breakdown of Это просторный дом, в котором мы хотим жить.
это
this / it is
дом
house
мы
we
жить
to live
хотеть
to want
в
in / to (direction)
который
which / who / that (relative pronoun)
просторный
spacious
Questions & Answers about Это просторный дом, в котором мы хотим жить.
Why do we say в котором instead of just который?
Который changes its form depending on what it does in its own part of the sentence. Here, we want to live in the house. Because you live 'in' a place, we need the preposition в and the prepositional case, so it becomes в котором.
How do we know to use the -ом ending for котором?
The word который takes the gender of the noun it points back to. It refers to дом, which is a masculine noun. The masculine prepositional ending for adjectives and words like который is -ом.
Is the comma before в котором strictly necessary?
Yes, it is mandatory. In Russian, you must always place a comma before the start of a relative clause (the descriptive part of the sentence that starts with words like который).
Why is жить in its dictionary form here?
It directly follows the conjugated verb хотим (we want). Just like in English, when you pair 'want' with another action (we want to live), the second verb stays in its infinitive form.
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