Question 1

Why is the number written as девятисот instead of девятьсот?

Accepted Answer

The preposition около (meaning 'around' or 'about') requires the following words to be in the Genitive case. When declining compound hundreds like девятьсот (900), both halves of the word change. The first half девять changes to its Genitive form девяти, and the second half -сот remains -сот in the Genitive. Put together, you get девятисот.

Question 2

Why is калорий in the Genitive plural here?

Accepted Answer

When a number is in an oblique case (any case other than Nominative or Accusative), the noun following it must match that case and be plural. Since девятисот is in the Genitive case, the noun must be in the Genitive plural. It comes from the feminine noun калория. To form the Genitive plural for nouns ending in -ия, you replace the final -я with -й, giving us калорий.

Question 3

Why do we use В этом торте instead of В этот торт?

Accepted Answer

The preposition в (in) takes the Prepositional case when describing a static location (where something is), and the Accusative case for direction (where something is going). Because the calories are already located inside the cake, we use the Prepositional case forms этом and торте.

Question 4

Can I express 'around nine hundred calories' without using the word около?

Accepted Answer

Yes! A very common Russian trick for approximation is to swap the noun and the number. Instead of using около, you could say В этом торте калорий девятьсот. Notice that without the preposition около forcing the Genitive case, the number goes back to the Nominative case (девятьсот) because it acts as the subject of the sentence.

В этом торте около девятисот калорий.

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