Questions & Answers about Это флаг нашей страны.
Why is нашей страны in the genitive case here?
It shows possession, translating to "of our country" or "our country's." Just like the genitive case is used to say "of May" (мая) or "of the year" (года) when building full dates in your current lesson, it is used here to link the flag to the country.
Wait, doesn't нашей look like the prepositional or dative case too?
Yes! For feminine possessive pronouns like наша (our), the genitive, dative, instrumental, and prepositional cases all share the exact same form: нашей. We know it is genitive here because it directly follows a noun to show possession.
Why don't we change Это to match the masculine word флаг?
When это acts as a standalone pronoun meaning "this is" or "these are" to introduce something, it stays in its neutral, unchangeable form regardless of the gender of the noun. If you wanted to say "this flag" as a single phrase (for example, "this flag is red"), you would instead use the matching masculine form: этот флаг.
What is the dictionary form of страны?
The nominative (dictionary) form is страна (country). To form the genitive singular for most feminine nouns ending in -а, you simply change the -а to -ы.
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