Breakdown of В этом городе проживало меньшинство мигрантов, а остальные уехали.
а
and (contrastive)
город
city
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
в
in / to (direction)
остальной
remaining
уехать
to leave (by vehicle, pf)
проживать
to reside
меньшинство
minority
мигрант
migrant
Questions & Answers about В этом городе проживало меньшинство мигрантов, а остальные уехали.
Why is проживало in the neuter singular instead of the plural, even though it refers to the plural мигрантов?
The grammatical subject of the clause is меньшинство (a minority), which is a neuter singular noun. When a collective noun like this is the subject, the verb often takes the neuter singular form to agree with it directly, treating the group as a single, unified block.
Would it be wrong to use the plural verb проживали here?
Not at all! With collective nouns like меньшинство or большинство followed by an animate plural noun (like мигрантов), you can choose the plural verb to emphasize the individual people rather than the statistical group. The neuter singular проживало used here just sounds a bit more formal and collective.
Why does the second clause switch to the plural verb уехали?
The subject changes in the second clause. The subject is now остальные (the rest / the others), which is a plural adjective acting as a noun. Because остальные is grammatically plural, its verb must also be plural (уехали).
Why does the sentence use а instead of и for "and"?
The conjunction а is used here to show juxtaposition or a soft contrast between two different subjects doing different things (one group stayed in the city, whereas the other group left). While English translates this smoothly as "and," Russian requires а to highlight this opposing action.
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