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"People" as the subject of a sentence

mathemajician
United States of America

"People" as the subject of a sentence

Post by mathemajician »

I forgot to paste the sentences this morning, but I ran into two sentences that I found somewhat confusing and could not find an answer in the tips (or online).

In one sentence, the subject was "people"; it was something like здесь живут люди

In the other, the subject was "many people"; it was something like здесь живёт много людей

It looks like when it is "people" the verb is conjugated with a plural form and when it is "many people" it is conjugated with a singular form. Am I reading/understanding this correctly?

And if so, does it also work in that manner with "few people"?

User avatar
duome

Re: "People" as the subject of a sentence

Post by duome »

It works the same way with мало, много, достаточно (людей); несколько, пять, шесть... десять.. сто (человек)
I can't tell the exact rule, but it looks like this change is triggered by an adverb, and it looks like a numeric also triggers the change from "людей" to "человек"...

Adverbs can also be combined and/or "inverted" like this, so it may also confuse you:

много/немного, мало/немало, достаточно, достаточно много, более чем достаточно...
(not) much / (not) few / (not) enough / quite a lot / more than enough ...

User avatar
duome

Re: "People" as the subject of a sentence

Post by duome »

the usual confusion with numerals:

два, три, четыре, so as 22-24,.. 122-124 etc - these go with "человека"
all the rest - ноль, один ... пять двадцать, двадцать один ... сто двадцать один and so on - go with "человек"
yet двое, трое, четверо, пятеро, шестеро, семеро, восьмеро, девятеро, десятеро - all these go with "людей"

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Davey944676
Great Britain

Re: "People" as the subject of a sentence

Post by Davey944676 »

The "Usage Notes" on this wiktionary page might also be helpful to somebody:

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/человек

🇬🇧 British Native....Learning Polish 🇵🇱, Russian 🇷🇺, Romanian 🇷🇴, Ukrainian 🇺🇦, French 🇫🇷, Welsh :wales:

DmGabin

Re: "People" as the subject of a sentence

Post by DmGabin »

It looks like when it is "people" the verb is conjugated with a plural form and when it is "many people"

Not really. When it is «люди» (a noun in plural) the verb is plural, but when it is «людей», it does not govern the verb, but the main word, of which «людей» is dependent, does, see duome’s comment. Note that “many people” can be translated both as «много людей» (singular) and as «многие люди» or just «многие» (plural). You should look at the word in the nominative case to choose the appropriate form of the verb governed.

mathemajician
United States of America

Re: "People" as the subject of a sentence

Post by mathemajician »

DmGabin wrote: Wed Jun 15, 2022 6:40 am

You should look at the word in the nominative case to choose the appropriate form of the verb governed.

I think I see. I didn't realize много declined but I found a chart for it now. So in this sentence много is the nominative and that's what governs the verb conjugation?

DmGabin

Re: "People" as the subject of a sentence

Post by DmGabin »

«Много» is an adverb, it has no declension, thus, is sort of deemed equal to a noun in the nominative case requiring a verb in the singular form (and of neutral gender, which matters for the past tense: «много людей выжило» vs. «многие люди выжили»).

mathemajician
United States of America

Re: "People" as the subject of a sentence

Post by mathemajician »

DmGabin wrote: Wed Jun 15, 2022 1:26 pm

«Много» is an adverb, it has no declension, thus, is sort of deemed equal to a noun in the nominative case requiring a verb in the singular form (and of neutral gender, which matters for the past tense: «много людей выжило» vs. «многие люди выжили»).

This is very helpful, thanks a lot -- especially for including the neutral gender part b/c I just started past tense.

Thanks also to everyone else who took time to answer, I think it is making more sense now.

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