Breakdown of В этих семенах — жизнь древних племён.
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
в
in / to (direction)
жизнь
life
древний
ancient
семя
the seed
племя
the tribe
Questions & Answers about В этих семенах — жизнь древних племён.
What is the dictionary form of семенах, and why does it have -ен- in the middle?
The dictionary form is семя (seed). It belongs to the special group of neuter nouns ending in -мя. Whenever you decline these nouns (in all cases except the nominative and accusative singular), you must add the suffix -ен- to the root. Since the sentence says "in these seeds", it uses the prepositional plural ending -ах, giving us в семенах.
What case is племён, and why does it end in -ён?
It is the genitive plural of племя (tribe), which is another special -мя noun. After adding the -ен- suffix to the stem, neuter nouns often take no extra letter for the genitive plural (a "zero ending"). For племя, the stress shifts to that final syllable in the genitive plural, which turns the е into ё, resulting in племён.
Why is there a dash (—) right before жизнь?
The dash replaces the present-tense verb "to be", which is usually omitted in Russian. It visually connects the location (В этих семенах) with the subject (жизнь). In English, we fill in the blank with "is".
Why does the adjective древних end in -их instead of -ых?
The adjective древний (ancient) modifies племён, so it must also be in the genitive plural. Because древний is a "soft-stem" adjective, it takes soft endings across all of its cases. Therefore, it uses the soft genitive plural ending -их rather than the hard ending -ых.
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