Breakdown of В центральных городах много людей.
город
city
много
a lot
в
in / to (direction)
люди
people
центральный
central
Questions & Answers about В центральных городах много людей.
Since this lesson is about the Genitive plural ending -ых, is центральных in the Genitive case here?
Actually, no! It is in the Prepositional case, because it follows the preposition в to show location (в городах). However, plural adjectives have the exact same endings in both the Genitive and Prepositional cases: -ых (hard) or -их (soft). So центральных looks exactly the same in both cases.
Why do we use людей here instead of a form of человек?
The word for person (человек) has an irregular plural: люди (people). The word много (many / a lot) always requires the following noun to be in the Genitive case. Because we are talking about multiple people, we use the Genitive plural form of люди, which is людей.
Why does the sentence start with the location (В центральных городах) instead of the subject?
In Russian, sentences often start with the location to set the scene, which is exactly how Russian translates the English concept of 'There is' or 'There are'. Starting with the location is the most natural way to say 'There are many people in the central cities.'
What is the base form of городах and why does it end in -ах?
The base form is город (city). It ends in -ах because it is in the Prepositional plural case. Almost all Russian nouns, regardless of gender, take the ending -ах (or -ях if they end in a soft sound) in the Prepositional plural.
Learn В центральных городах много людей and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free