Breakdown of Эти города очень похожие.
город
city
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
очень
very
похожий
similar, alike
Questions & Answers about Эти города очень похожие.
The current lesson is about the comparative degree. How would we change this sentence to say 'These cities are MORE similar'?
You would replace очень похожие with the comparative form похожее. Unlike regular adjectives, comparative words ending in -ее do not change to match plural nouns, so the sentence simply becomes Эти города похожее.
Why does the plural word for cities, города, end in an 'a'?
Even though город is a masculine noun and you might expect its plural to end in -ы, it belongs to a special group of everyday masculine words that take a stressed -а in the plural. You have probably seen this before with дом (house) becoming дома.
Why is the adjective похожие used here instead of the dictionary form похожий?
Adjectives must match the noun they describe in gender, case, and number. Since города is plural, the adjective takes the plural ending -ие to become похожие. If you were talking about just one city, you would say Этот город очень похожий.
I often see похожи used for 'similar'. Could we use that here instead?
Yes! Эти города очень похожи uses the short form of the adjective and is actually the most common, natural way to state the fact that they are similar. The long form похожие used in this exact sentence focuses slightly more on describing their traits, a bit like saying 'These are very similar cities.'
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