Breakdown of У нас столько же обязанностей, сколько и у них.
и
and
мы
we
они
they
у
at, by
сколько
how much / how long / as much / as many as
же
particle (same / exactly) / but / you know (emphasis)
столько
so many / so much
обязанность
the duty, the responsibility
Questions & Answers about У нас столько же обязанностей, сколько и у них.
Why is обязанностей in the genitive case here?
Words of quantity like столько (so much/many) and сколько (how much/many) require the noun that follows them to be in the genitive case. Since we are talking about countable things (duties), we use the genitive plural обязанностей.
What do the particles же and и add to столько ... сколько, and are they mandatory?
You can just use столько ... сколько to mean as much/many as, but adding же and и strongly emphasizes the exact equality of the two sides (exactly as many as). They are not strictly mandatory, but столько же ..., сколько и ... is the standard, highly natural way to phrase this kind of direct comparison.
обязанностей has the -ей ending. What is the dictionary form of this noun?
The nominative singular is обязанность (duty, obligation). It is a feminine noun ending in a soft sign (-ь). Nouns ending in a soft sign, whether masculine or feminine, typically take the -ей ending in the genitive plural.
Why is there an н at the beginning of у них?
The base pronoun for they is они, and its normal genitive form is их. However, when third-person pronouns (он, она, оно, они) immediately follow a preposition like у, you must attach an н- to the beginning of the pronoun. This makes the transition between the preposition and the vowel easier to pronounce.
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