Question 1

Why does этих городах end in -их and -ах?

Accepted Answer

This phrase means 'in these cities'. Because it describes a location after the preposition в (in), it must be in the Prepositional case. Since we are talking about multiple cities, we use the plural Prepositional endings: -их for the plural demonstrative pronoun этих (these) and -ах for the plural hard noun городах (cities).

Question 2

The singular word for city is город. How exactly do we form the plural городах?

Accepted Answer

Город has an irregular plural. Its Nominative plural form is города (cities) instead of using a regular ending. The Prepositional plural case usually adds -ах or -ях to the plural stem of a word. Since the irregular plural stem already gives us города-, we simply add -х to get городах.

Question 3

How does холодно translate to 'it is cold' without words for 'it' or 'is'?

Accepted Answer

When describing weather, the environment, or how someone feels, Russian uses an impersonal structure. There is no subject ('it') and no present-tense verb ('is'). You simply use the adverb form ending in -о, like холодно (cold), жарко (hot), or тепло (warm).

Question 4

Why is the word for winter written as зимой here instead of зима?

Accepted Answer

Зима is the basic noun for 'winter'. However, when you want to say 'in' a season or a time of day, Russian uses the Instrumental case. The feminine noun зима changes to the Instrumental form зимой to mean 'in winter'.

Question 5

Is например made up of two different words?

Accepted Answer

Exactly! It is a combination of the preposition на (for or on) and the noun пример (example). Written together as one word, например, it means 'for example'.

Например, в этих городах холодно зимой.

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