Breakdown of Мы открыли наш первый магазин десятого октября тысяча девятьсот девяносто пятого года.
мы
we
наш
our
магазин
store, shop
год
year
открыть
to open
первый
first (1st)
октябрь
October
девяносто
ninety
тысяча
thousand
пятый
fifth
десятый
tenth
девятьсот
nine hundred
Questions & Answers about Мы открыли наш первый магазин десятого октября тысяча девятьсот девяносто пятого года.
Why is it десятого октября in the genitive case instead of the nominative десятое октября?
To express that an event happened on a specific full date, Russian puts the ordinal number (the day) into the genitive case. The month is always in the genitive anyway. So, десятого (the tenth) and октября (of October) combine in the genitive to mean "on the tenth of October".
In the year part, why are the words тысяча девятьсот девяносто not declined?
When saying a specific year in Russian, only the very last word of the number becomes an ordinal number (like "first", "second", "fifth") and takes a case ending. The preceding numbers stay in their base, cardinal form (nominative). So for 1995, only the "five" becomes the genitive ordinal пятого, while 1,990 remains тысяча девятьсот девяносто.
Why does the year start with тысяча (thousand) instead of something like "nineteen" like we say in English?
Unlike English, which often groups years into hundreds (nineteen ninety-five), Russian always reads years as full mathematical numbers, exactly as if you were counting items. You literally say "one thousand nine hundred ninety-fifth year".
Why does the direct object наш первый магазин look like it's in the nominative case?
It is actually in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb открыли (opened). However, because магазин is a masculine inanimate noun, its accusative form (along with the words attached to it) looks exactly identical to its nominative dictionary form.
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