Breakdown of Наш бренд был очень популярный в две тысячи двадцатом году.
наш
our (наш, наша, наше)
очень
very
год
year
две
two (f)
быть
to be
в
on / during (a time period)
тысяча
thousand
двадцатый
twentieth
популярный
popular
бренд
the brand (m)
Questions & Answers about Наш бренд был очень популярный в две тысячи двадцатом году.
Why does год change to году instead of the usual prepositional ending годе?
A small group of Russian masculine nouns have a special second prepositional (or "locative") case ending in -у when used with the prepositions в or на to talk about a location in place or time. Год is one of these words, so "in the year" is always в ... году.
In в две тысячи двадцатом, why do the words две тысячи stay the same while only двадцатом changes?
When saying a year in Russian, you use an ordinal number (like "the 2020th year"). In compound numbers (numbers made of multiple words), only the very last word acts as an ordinal number and changes its ending to match the case. The earlier parts like две тысячи (two thousand) remain as standard counting numbers and do not change.
Why does двадцатый (twentieth) become двадцатом here?
It has to agree with the noun it modifies, году, which is in the prepositional case. The prepositional ending for masculine adjectives and ordinal numbers is -ом. Therefore, двадцатый becomes двадцатом.
Why is популярный in the nominative case instead of the instrumental (популярным) after был?
When using был (was) with an adjective, you can often use either the nominative or the instrumental case. The instrumental is usually preferred for temporary states, but the nominative is very common in everyday speech for simple descriptions. Both would be completely correct in this sentence!
Do Russians really say "two thousand twentieth" instead of splitting it like "twenty twenty"?
Yes! While in English we often split years into two chunks ("twenty twenty"), Russians always read out the full number. You should never split a year into двадцать двадцать.
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