"She is by the bridge."

Translation: Она у моста.

[sswofford]

Would около work here? I'm not totally clear on the difference between возле and около.

[2E3S]

Возле and около are synonyms and somewhat relative. У моста means something non-relatively closer to the bridge though.

[sswofford]

Oh, I didn't realise they were relative, thank you.

[peterviuz]

Около accepted.

[LeeMorgan0]

Why is this genitive case?

[yashamax]

I'm not a native speaker, but as I understand it, all three--у около возле--all require the genitive. That's just the way it is, brother..

[Royal_Gopnik]

if you use "рядом с" it only requires...dative? it uses a different case, anyways.

[R_Andersson]

No, «рядом с» requires the instrumental case (творительный падеж), not dative (дательный падеж). However, with regard to how it’s translated in English, I understand why you would think that. :)

• «Она стоит рядом с мостом» — ‘She it/stands next to the bridge’.
• «Мой принтер стоит рядом с окном» — ‘My printer is next to the window’.

EDIT: Yeah, it uses a different case.

[knowingisgrowing]

Why was "У мосту она" counted wrong?

[MrHarryRay]

To elaborate a bit: normally the new information goes at the end of the sentence in Russian, with known information at the beginning.

So, у моста волк is likely to mean "by the bridge is A wolf", while волк у моста means "THE wolf is by a/the bridge".

Now try this with she/her. "She is by the bridge" works fine but "by the bridge is her" doesn't, because you can't introduce a new subject like this. "She" can only refer to previously discussed people, so it can't really go at the end without sounding funny.

[Librum63]

Because it should be "у моста она" at least. But it is really in Yoda style :)

[a22brad22]

From comments on other posts, i think although it is correct, it would sound a little Yoda-like.
By the bridge, she is.

[slothy117]

why do we use the genitive case here?

[Abdulkadir1772]

there is a famous bridge in Bosnia named "Mostar". Now i get the etymologic meaning. Thank you Duo.

[JonquillaKedron]

Very interesting! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stari_Most Thanks.

[yashamax]

Thanks for posting this link to the story about the Stari Most in Mostar.

[GeorgeAndri]

Why is it моста and not мостом as it was previously?

[piguy3]

"у" takes genitive; "над", "под", "перед", and "за" take instrumental (at least in this sentence, were they used where "у" was)

[Sheila804826]

I thought близко meant near also. Why doesn't that work?