Breakdown of У соседних домов красивые сады.
дом
house
красивый
beautiful
сад
garden
соседний
neighbouring, next
Questions & Answers about У соседних домов красивые сады.
Why does соседних end in -их and not -ых?
It is the genitive plural form of the adjective соседний (neighbouring). Because the dictionary form ends in the soft ending -ний, it takes the soft plural ending -их in the genitive case instead of the hard ending -ых.
Why do we use the genitive plural for домов here?
The preposition у (used here to express possession) always requires the genitive case. Because the sentence is about multiple neighbouring houses, we use the genitive plural form of the masculine noun дом, which adds the ending -ов.
If the houses have gardens, why is красивые сады in the nominative case?
The Russian way to express possession literally translates to 'By the houses are beautiful gardens.' Because the gardens are the things that exist, they are actually the subject of the sentence and stay in the nominative case.
Why is the word есть (is/are) left out of this sentence?
In 'having' sentences, we usually drop есть when we are describing a specific quality of the object. Here, we are focusing on the fact that the gardens are beautiful, rather than simply confirming that the houses possess gardens.