Breakdown of Второго февраля двухтысячного года мне было десять лет.
я
I
десять
ten
год
year
быть
to be
февраль
February
второй
second
двухтысячный
two thousandth
Questions & Answers about Второго февраля двухтысячного года мне было десять лет.
Why do both the day and the month take the Genitive case in Второго февраля?
To say that something happened on a specific date, Russian puts the ordinal number for the day into the Genitive case (второго). The month is always in the Genitive because you are literally saying 'on the second day of February' (февраля).
How is the word двухтысячного formed?
To express the year 2000, Russian uses the ordinal number 'the two-thousandth' (двухтысячный). This is a compound word made of двух- (two) and -тысячный (thousandth). Because it is part of a specific date phrase, it takes the Genitive case ending, becoming двухтысячного.
Why does the sentence use мне было instead of я был?
When talking about age in Russian, the person is put in the Dative case (мне). The sentence literally translates to 'to me there was ten of years'. Because the grammatical subject is the quantity of years, the past tense verb быть takes the default neuter singular form было.
We see both года and лет in this sentence. Why are there two different words for year?
In the date phrase, года is the regular Genitive singular of год (meaning 'of the year'). But when stating age, the rules change based on the number. After numbers 5 to 20, like десять (ten), you must use the Genitive plural. For год, the Genitive plural is the irregular word лет.
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