Breakdown of В этом торте около девятисот калорий.
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
в
in / to (direction)
торт
cake
девятьсот
nine hundred
Questions & Answers about В этом торте около девятисот калорий.
Why is the number written as девятисот instead of девятьсот?
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.
Why is калорий in the Genitive plural here?
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.
Why do we use В этом торте instead of В этот торт?
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.
Can I express 'around nine hundred calories' without using the word около?