Questions & Answers about В поле мы видели зайцев.
Why does the word for hares end in -ев here (зайцев) instead of the regular plural -ы (зайцы)?
Because заяц (hare) is an animate noun, meaning it represents a living person or animal. When an animate noun is the direct object of an action, its Accusative plural form copies its Genitive plural form. Instead of the regular plural зайцы, it takes the Genitive plural ending -ев to become зайцев.
The dictionary form of hare is заяц. Why does the spelling change so much in зайцев?
The word заяц has what is called a fleeting vowel. When you add grammatical endings to it, the letter я drops out. To keep the y-sound that was part of the я (which is pronounced like ya), the letter й takes its place. So, the base of the word becomes зайц- before adding the -ев ending.
Why is it в поле and not в полю or в поля?
The phrase translates to in the field and answers the question where, which requires the Prepositional case. The noun поле (field) is a neuter noun that already ends in -е in its dictionary form. For neuter nouns ending in -е, the Prepositional case ending is also -е, so the word does not actually change its spelling here.
Could I use the perfective verb увидели instead of видели here?
Yes, but it changes the meaning slightly. The imperfective verb видели simply states the general fact that you saw hares while you were in the field. The perfective verb увидели would mean you suddenly spotted them or caught sight of them as a specific, one-time event.
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