Breakdown of У нас двоих есть драгоценные камни.
камень
stone
мы
we
у
at, by
есть
is, there is, to have
двое
two (collective)
драгоценный
precious
Questions & Answers about У нас двоих есть драгоценные камни.
Why use двоих instead of двух here?
Двоих is the genitive form of the collective numeral двое. When referring to groups of people using personal pronouns like нас (us), вас (you), or их (them), Russian strongly prefers collective numerals to emphasize the group as a single unit ('the two of us'). Since the preposition у requires the genitive case, двое declines to двоих.
Could I change the word order and say у двоих нас?
It is much better to put the pronoun first. When a collective numeral is used with a personal pronoun, the natural word order in Russian is pronoun + numeral, giving us у нас двоих.
Why is драгоценные камни in the nominative case if it is the thing we have?
In Russian 'to have' constructions (у + genitive + есть), the thing possessed is actually the grammatical subject of the sentence. Therefore, драгоценные камни (precious stones) must be in the nominative case, while the owners (нас двоих) take the genitive.
Why does the word камни lose a letter compared to its singular form камень?
The noun камень (stone) contains a 'fleeting vowel'. When you add grammatical endings to it, such as the plural -и, the -е- in the final syllable drops out, making it камни.
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