Breakdown of Накануне юбилея дедушки, четвёртого апреля тысяча девятьсот девяносто первого года, мы приехали в город.
мы
we
город
city
в
in / to (direction)
дедушка
grandfather
год
year
первый
first (1st)
апрель
April
девяносто
ninety
тысяча
thousand
четвёртый
fourth
приехать
to arrive (by transport, pf)
девятьсот
nine hundred
юбилей
jubilee
накануне
on the eve
Questions & Answers about Накануне юбилея дедушки, четвёртого апреля тысяча девятьсот девяносто первого года, мы приехали в город.
Why are the day, month, and year (четвёртого апреля ... первого года) all in the Genitive case?
To say 'on a specific full date', Russian uses the Genitive case for the day, the month, and the year. This is the standard way to answer the question 'when?' (когда?) with an exact date.
Why are the numbers тысяча девятьсот девяносто not in the Genitive case, while первого is?
When stating a year, Russian uses a compound ordinal number (like 1991st). The rule is that only the very last word of a compound ordinal number changes its ending. So the thousands, hundreds, and tens stay in their base (Nominative) form, and only the final word takes the Genitive ending.
Why is юбилей written as юбилея here?
The word накануне means 'on the eve of' or 'the day before'. It acts as a preposition that always requires the following noun to be in the Genitive case.
Why do we say мы приехали в город instead of в городе?
Приехать (to arrive) is a verb of motion. Whenever you are expressing motion towards a destination (arriving into the city), you must use в or на with the Accusative case. The Prepositional case (в городе) would only be used if you were already located inside the city without changing location.
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