Breakdown of Дедушкин друг оставил нам в наследство этот царицын портрет.
друг
friend
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
в
in / to (direction)
нам
to us
Questions & Answers about Дедушкин друг оставил нам в наследство этот царицын портрет.
Why does дедушкин end in -ин but царицын ends in -ын?
Both are possessive adjectives formed from nouns ending in -а or -я (дедушка, царица). The standard suffix is -ин (as in дедушкин or мамин). However, because царица ends in -ца, Russian spelling rules require us to use -ын after the hard consonant ц.
Why do дедушкин and царицын have no adjective endings here, unlike a normal adjective such as новый?
These possessive adjectives use a "mixed" declension. In the masculine nominative (дедушкин друг) and the inanimate masculine accusative (царицын портрет), they take a "zero ending" (no extra vowels). This makes them look like nouns or short-form adjectives in their base form.
Why is it в наследство (into inheritance) instead of just using the instrumental case for "as an inheritance"?
In Russian, actions like giving something "as a gift" (в подарок) or leaving it "as an inheritance" (в наследство) use the preposition в + the accusative case. It is a standard set phrase you should memorize as a block.
Could I just say портрет царицы instead of using the possessive adjective царицын?