Questions & Answers about Я помню слова обеих песен.
Why is 'both' translated as обеих here instead of обоих?
The word for 'both' has two base forms: оба for masculine/neuter nouns and обе for feminine nouns. Since песня (song) is feminine, we use the feminine root. In the genitive case, обе becomes обеих, whereas the masculine/neuter оба would become обоих.
Why are обеих песен in the genitive case?
They are in the genitive case to show possession or connection, acting like the English word 'of'. The sentence literally translates to 'I remember the words OF both songs'.
Why does песен have an 'е' in it if the dictionary form is песня?
To form the genitive plural of many feminine words ending in -я, the final vowel is dropped. For песня, dropping the -я leaves a hard-to-pronounce consonant cluster at the end of the word. To fix this, Russian inserts a 'fleeting vowel' (е) between the last two consonants, giving us песен.
Is слова the specific Russian word for 'lyrics'?
The literal meaning of слова is simply 'words' (the plural of the neuter noun слово). However, in the context of music, слова is the standard and most natural way to say 'lyrics' in Russian.
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