Breakdown of Наши соседи живут наверху.
наш
our (наш, наша, наше)
жить
to live
сосед
neighbor
наверху
upstairs, up above
Questions & Answers about Наши соседи живут наверху.
Why is the plural of сосед written as соседи rather than соседы?
сосед (neighbour) has an irregular plural. The final -д becomes soft in the plural, so it takes the soft ending -и instead of the standard hard ending -ы expected for masculine nouns ending in a consonant.
Where does the -в- come from in живут?
The verb жить (to live) has an irregular stem in the present tense. Instead of just removing the -ть and adding endings to жи-, the present tense stem is жив-. This gives us forms like я живу, ты живёшь, and они живут.
Why do we use наверху here instead of наверх?
наверху is an adverb of location meaning upstairs (answering the question where?). If you were talking about moving upstairs (direction, answering where to?), you would use наверх. Since living is a static state, we use the location form.
Is наверху always written as one word?
It is written as one word when used as a standalone adverb meaning upstairs or at the top. If you write it as two words (на верху), it becomes the preposition на (on) plus the noun верх (the top). You only write it as two words if you are specifying the top of something, like на верху шкафа (on top of the wardrobe).
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