Это подвал, в котором мы хотим сделать гараж.
This is the basement in which we want to make a garage.
Breakdown of Это подвал, в котором мы хотим сделать гараж.
это
this / it is
мы
we
хотеть
to want
в
in / to (direction)
сделать
to do (perfective) / to make (perfective)
который
which / who / that (relative pronoun)
гараж
garage
подвал
basement
Questions & Answers about Это подвал, в котором мы хотим сделать гараж.
Why is it в котором instead of just который?
Который acts like an adjective and must match the noun it replaces in gender and number, but its case depends on its role in its own part of the sentence. Here, it refers to the masculine noun подвал (basement). Because we are talking about doing something inside the basement ('in which'), it takes the preposition в and the Prepositional case ending -ом.
Гараж is the object we want to make. Why doesn't its ending change here?
Гараж is in the Accusative case because it is the direct object of сделать (to make). However, because it is a masculine, inanimate (non-living) noun, its Accusative form looks exactly the same as its dictionary form.
Why do we use the perfective verb сделать here instead of the imperfective делать?
We use the perfective сделать because the focus is on the final result: getting the garage completely built and finished. If you used делать, it would mean you just want to spend time in the process of building it.
Is the comma before в котором strictly necessary?
Yes! In Russian, you must always put a comma before a relative clause (a clause starting with words like который, что, or где). Even though we often don't use a comma before 'in which' in English, it is a strict rule in Russian punctuation.
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