Breakdown of В середине недели у нас работа.
мы
we
работа
work, job
в
in / to (direction)
у
at, by
неделя
week
середина
middle
Questions & Answers about В середине недели у нас работа.
Why does the word for middle end in -е here (середине)?
The dictionary form is середина (middle). It changes to середине because the preposition в (in) is used to pinpoint a location in time. This requires the Prepositional case, which often changes an -а ending to an -е.
How does the sentence say "of the week" if there is no word for "of"?
Russian shows the word "of" by changing the ending of the noun. The dictionary word is неделя (week). By changing the ending to -и to make недели, it becomes the Genitive case, meaning "of the week".
Where is the verb for "have" in this sentence?
Russian rarely uses a direct verb for "have". Instead, it uses the preposition у followed by a pronoun in the Genitive case. У нас literally means "by us", so the phrase is used to mean "we have". The present tense verb for "is" is simply left out.
Why is работа in its dictionary form if it is the thing we have?
Because of the у нас construction, the thing being "had" is actually the grammatical subject of the sentence. Literally, this sentence translates to "In the middle of the week, work is by us." Since работа (work) is the subject, it stays in the Nominative (dictionary) case.
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