Breakdown of В первой подгруппе нас было трое, а во второй — четверо.
а
and (contrastive)
в
in / to (direction)
нас
us
быть
to be
первый
first (1st)
второй
second
четверо
four (collective)
трое
three (collective)
подгруппа
subgroup
Questions & Answers about В первой подгруппе нас было трое, а во второй — четверо.
Why does this sentence use нас ... трое instead of мы ... три?
When stating how many of "us", "you", or "them" there are, Russian pairs the Genitive case of the pronoun (нас, вас, их) with a collective numeral (двое, трое, четверо, etc.). You cannot use regular cardinal numbers like три directly with personal pronouns to say "three of us".
If this refers to multiple people, why is the verb было in the neuter singular instead of the plural были?
Constructions showing quantity with pronouns in the Genitive (нас, вас, их) act as impersonal sentences, meaning there is no grammatical subject. In the past tense, the verb in an impersonal sentence always takes the default neuter singular form, было.
Why does the preposition change to во in во второй?
The preposition в becomes во when it comes before a word starting with в or ф followed by another consonant. Since второй starts with the consonant cluster вт-, во is required to make the phrase pronounceable.
What exactly is the dash (—) replacing in the second half of the sentence?
The dash is commonly used in Russian to mark an ellipsis, meaning it replaces words that were already established in the first clause to avoid repetition. Here, it stands in for the omitted words подгруппе нас было.
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