Breakdown of Я приехал десятого мая две тысячи первого года, чтобы организовать выставку.
я
I
выставка
exhibition
год
year
две
two (f)
первый
first (1st)
май
May
тысяча
thousand
десятый
tenth
приехать
to arrive (by transport, pf)
чтобы
in order to
организовать
to organize
Questions & Answers about Я приехал десятого мая две тысячи первого года, чтобы организовать выставку.
Why are the numbers десятого and первого in the Genitive case?
When stating that an event happened on a specific full date, Russian puts the ordinal numbers for the day and the year into the Genitive case. Here, десятого (the tenth) and первого (the first) are the Genitive forms of десятый and первый.
Why does две тысячи stay in its base form instead of also changing to the Genitive case?
For compound ordinal numbers (numbers made of multiple words, like "two thousand and first"), only the very last word declines. Since the year is две тысячи первый, only первый changes to первого. The rest of the number remains unchanged.
Why do we add the word года at the end of the date?
Unlike in English, Russian requires you to explicitly say the word "year" (год) after the number when giving a specific date. Because the entire date phrase is in the Genitive case to express "when", год becomes года.
Why do we need чтобы here? Doesn't the infinitive организовать already mean "to organize"?
In English, we often just use an infinitive to express purpose (I arrived to organize). In Russian, you must explicitly use чтобы (in order to) followed by the infinitive to show the purpose of an action. Also, Russian punctuation rules always require a comma before чтобы.
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