Questions & Answers about В прошлом году мы были на море.
Why does this sentence say в прошлом году (Prepositional) when we are learning to use the Genitive for dates?
You use the Genitive case when giving a full, specific date (like "on the 5th of May"). However, when you only mention the year generally or say "this/last/next year", you use the preposition в + the Prepositional case.
Why is the ending -у in году instead of the standard Prepositional -е?
The noun год (year) is one of a handful of Russian masculine nouns that have a special "Locative" case. When used with в or на to show time or location, it takes the stressed ending -у instead of -е.
Why do we use на for "at the sea" (на море) instead of в?
In Russian, you use на for the sea (море) when talking about being at the seaside or on a beach vacation. Using в море means you are physically in the water (like a fish or a submarine).
Is море in the Nominative case here? It hasn't changed its spelling.
It is actually in the Prepositional case because it answers the question "where?" (location). Neuter nouns that end in -е in the Nominative case (like море) take an -е ending in the Prepositional case, so the word looks identical to its dictionary form.
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