Breakdown of К чьему антикварному лоту подходит этот коллекционер?
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
чей
whose (m, sister forms: чья, чьё)
к
towards, to
подходить
to approach, to come up to (imperfective)
Questions & Answers about К чьему антикварному лоту подходит этот коллекционер?
Why is the word for 'whose' spelled чьему here?
Чьему is the dative case form of the masculine word чей (whose). It is in the dative case because the preposition к (towards) requires it. It modifies the masculine noun лоту, so they all share the same case, gender, and number.
Why is the preposition к placed at the very beginning of the sentence?
In English, we can put the preposition at the end of the question (walking up to), but in Russian, a preposition must go right before the noun phrase it belongs to. Here, the phrase starts with the question word чьему, so к has to come first.
What case is triggered by the verb подходит?
The verb подходить (to approach) usually pairs with the preposition к followed by the dative case. That is why we see the dative endings in the phrase чьему антикварному лоту.