Breakdown of Мы купили новый завод и открыли филиал в две тысячи третьем году.
и
and
мы
we
новый
new
завод
factory
год
year
две
two (f)
купить
to buy (perfective)
в
on / during (a time period)
открыть
to open
тысяча
thousand
третий
third
филиал
the branch (m)
Questions & Answers about Мы купили новый завод и открыли филиал в две тысячи третьем году.
Why does the sentence end with году instead of the regular Prepositional ending годе?
When expressing the year something happened using в (in), the word год (year) takes a special irregular ending. Instead of the usual -е, it takes -у (this is a leftover from an old case called the Locative), and the stress falls on that final -у.
Why doesn't две тысячи (two thousand) change its ending to match the Prepositional case of третьем году?
In Russian, years are expressed using ordinal numbers (like "the two thousand and third year"). When you have a compound number for a year, only the very last word changes its case. So две тысячи stays in its base form, and only третий changes to the Prepositional form третьем.
Why do новый завод (new factory) and филиал (branch) look like they are in the Nominative (dictionary) case? Aren't they the objects being bought and opened?
They are actually in the Accusative case! They just look exactly like the Nominative. In Russian, masculine nouns and their adjectives that are inanimate (non-living things) do not change their endings in the Accusative case.
Why do we use the verbs купили and открыли here?
These are perfective verbs, which are used for completed, one-time actions with a clear result. Because the sentence states the factual results of buying a factory and opening a branch in that specific year, the perfective aspect is required, rather than the imperfective (покупали / открывали).
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