Questions & Answers about У нас дома широкий подоконник.
Why do we use дома here instead of в доме?
Why is широкий подоконник in the Nominative case? Isn't it the object of "we have"?
In Russian "have" constructions using у нас, the thing you possess is grammatically the subject of the sentence, not the direct object. Because it is the subject, it stays in the Nominative case. Literally, this translates to "By us at home [is] a wide windowsill."
Why is the word есть missing from this "we have" sentence?
While you could say у нас дома есть широкий подоконник, Russians typically drop есть when describing the qualities of an object you have (like it being широкий - wide) rather than simply confirming its existence.
The word подоконник looks long and difficult. Is there an easy way to remember it?
Yes, you can break it down into familiar parts! It is made of the prefix под- (under) and the root for window, окн- (from окно). A подоконник is quite literally the structure "under the window."
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