Questions & Answers about Среди деревьев мы нашли волчий след.
Why do we use the adjective волчий here instead of just saying след волка?
Both are grammatically correct and mean the same thing. However, possessive adjectives ending in -ий (like собачий, птичий, волчий) are the most natural and common way in Russian to indicate that something belongs to or was produced by a specific type of animal.
What happened to the letter к from the root word волк when forming волчий?
When forming these animal possessive adjectives, the final consonant of the root often mutates. The к in волк changes to ч before adding the -ий suffix. You see similar consonant changes in other animal names, such as собака becoming собачий.
Since волчий след is the direct object of нашли, why doesn't its ending change to show the accusative case?
It is actually in the accusative case! Because след (track) is a masculine inanimate noun, its accusative form is identical to the nominative. The adjective волчий simply agrees with it. If the object were a masculine animate noun, like a wolf cub, it would take the genitive-like accusative ending instead: волчьего щенка.
Why does the genitive plural of дерево (tree) end in -ьев (деревьев) instead of just dropping a vowel?