Questions & Answers about Мы подписали договор аренды на год.
Why do we use на год here to mean "for a year"?
This is the classic на + Accusative pattern for intended duration. You use it when an action takes a short time (like signing a contract), but the result of that action is planned to last for a specific period of time. Here, the lease is intended to last for one year.
Why is аренды in the Genitive case in this sentence?
The phrase договор аренды literally means "contract of rent." In Russian, when a noun describes or modifies another noun like this, the second noun takes the Genitive case. Аренды is the Genitive form of the feminine noun аренда (rent or lease).
Since на год uses the Accusative case, why doesn't the ending of год change?
Год is an inanimate masculine noun. For inanimate masculine nouns, the Accusative case form is exactly the same as the Nominative (dictionary) form. If it were a feminine noun like неделя (week), you would see the ending change: на неделю.
Is there anything special about how на год is pronounced?
Yes, in this specific time phrase, the stress typically shifts backward onto the preposition, making it на́ год. You will hear the emphasis on the на, while the vowel in год is pronounced shorter and less prominently.