Breakdown of Они нашли останки рептилии и её челюсть шириной в один метр.
и
and
они
they
один
one
найти
to find
метр
metre
ширина
width
её
her (possessive)
в
of (in measurements)
рептилия
reptile
останки
remains
челюсть
jaw
Questions & Answers about Они нашли останки рептилии и её челюсть шириной в один метр.
Why do we use the preposition в and the Accusative case for один метр?
This is the standard Russian formula for stating exact measurements. You use the dimension noun in the Instrumental case (here, шириной) followed by the preposition в plus the amount in the Accusative case. You will use this same pattern for length (длиной в), height (высотой в), and other measures.
Why is the word for width, шириной, in the Instrumental case?
It acts as an attributive modifier describing the jaw (челюсть). When a noun describes an object's inherent physical dimension or quality, it takes the Instrumental case. It loosely translates to having a jaw characterized by a width of one meter.
Why does this sentence use останки instead of остатки for "remains"?
Both words come from the same root, but останки is specifically used for the physical, bodily remains or bones of a human or animal. You would use остатки for everyday leftovers, like the remains of a meal or the remnants of material.
Why does the sentence use её instead of the reflexive pronoun свою?
The reflexive pronoun свой refers back to the subject of the clause. The subject here is Они (they). If you wrote свою челюсть, it would mean the people found their own jaw! We use её because the jaw belongs to the reptile (рептилия, a feminine noun), not to the grammatical subject.
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