"П'ять років"

Translation: Five years

[torkelrogstad]

Why is "років" written in genitive?

[Vinnfred]

Because genitive is used with numerals which don't end in 1, 2, 3, 4 :)

[hrabalu]

Now things are getting interesting!

[Vinnfred]

2, 3, 4 use accusative, 1 - nominative

[AlexKarampas]

This is the craziest grammatical rule I have ever encountered!!

[sagitta145]

1 + Nominative singular (один рік)

2,3,4, + Nominative plural (два роки)

5 + Genetive plural (шість років)

But as Vinnfred pointed out, it depends on the last digit of the number, not the number itself, so e.g. 24 follows the rule #2, not #3 (24 роки, not 24 років)

[Vinnfred]

it's not last digit, but last word :D (12, remember? :)

[sagitta145]

Oh right man! And I've been going around confusing people :) The last word, yes! Sorry :)

[lifeisaduck]

What if it ends in a 0?? what case would that be?

[Vinnfred]

genitive :)
10 років

[Luke_5.1991]

Давід Боий reference?

[Vinnfred]

*Девід Бові
Can't say anything concerning the reference though :)

[NicolasGranbar]

What about this Ukrainian apostrophe? I can't hear any difference in its pronunciation.

[sagitta145]

The apostrophe means you separate "я" from "п", so "я" sounds like "йа". The resulting sound is "пйа" Without the apostrophe it means that "п" gets softened, and "я" sounds like "а". The resulting sound is - "пьа".

This is the Ukrainian pronunciation (п'ять = пйать), and this the Russian one (пять = пьать), to demonstrate the separation VS the softening effect.

For people who are familiar with the Spanish "ñ", it's easier to explain using this sound :) ня -> ña, н'я -> nya

[_ginzburg]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bcnO3VQ_fc