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I couldn't understand why "зуб" is in genitive case(зубов) in the following sentence. What is the grammatical explanation for that?

у меня в два раза больше зубов,чем у тебя.

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3 Answers 3

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The explanation is very simple - you must use genitive after больше and меньше as well as after много and мало or telling an exact number (у меня десять пальцев и сто тысяч волос).

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    unless the last digit of the number is in 1-4 range and the second to last digit is not 1.
    – Quassnoi
    Apr 21, 2017 at 15:52
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"more teeth" and "less teeth" in Russian is like in English "number of teeth" using of. Like if in English you would say "more of teeth". And word of indicates that the next word is in genitive case.

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Words which describe inexact quality govern genitive plural: много котов, мало котов, больше котов, чем у тебя, немного котов, несколько котов, столько же котов, сколько у вас котов...

Words which describe number also govern genitive plural unless then end by 1,2,3,4, but not 11,12,13,14: 8 котов, 112 котов.

However, quantors есть коты, некоторые коты, все коты govern nominative plural.

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  • нет котов but contextually нет кота, if cat supposed to be singular :P
    – Swift
    Apr 22, 2017 at 4:04

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