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Questions & Answers about Я трачу много денег.
Why is денег in the genitive plural form here?
Words that express quantity, like много (a lot) or сколько (how much/many), trigger the exact same rule as numbers 5 and up. They require the following noun to be in the genitive case. Because the word for money is plural, it takes the genitive plural form here.
Where did the "е" in денег come from if the dictionary form is деньги?
This is a fleeting vowel. When forming the genitive plural, we remove the final vowel и from деньги. Leaving ньг at the end of a word is very hard to pronounce, so Russian drops the soft sign (ь) and inserts an е to make it roll off the tongue: денег.
Is the word деньги always plural?
Yes, деньги (money) only exists in the plural form in Russian. This is why it must take the genitive plural ending after много, rather than the genitive singular you might use for uncountable things like water (много воды).
Why does the verb трачу have a ч when the infinitive is тратить?
The verb тратить (to spend) belongs to the second conjugation, but it has a consonant mutation in the я (I) form. The т changes to a ч just for this one pronoun, giving us я трачу. The other forms keep the т (for example, ты тратишь).