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In the following sentence:

Нас миллиарды на земле.

Source: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/30984756

Why is this accusative or genitive, not nominative? The sentence is translated into English "We are billions on the Earth.".

I found another example:

Их сотни миллионов.

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1
  • There are too many of us, he thought. There are billions of us and that's too many.(Bradbury) we use this variant.
    – V.V.
    Aug 14, 2022 at 18:52

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7

Because a closer translation would be "There are billions of us on Earth". This "of us" translates to "нас". Same with "Их миллиарды..." - "Billions of them..."

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2
  • And if there is no translation? Then what is the mstter?
    – V.V.
    Aug 16, 2022 at 5:21
  • "их миллиарды" might also mean "their billions" depending on context.
    – Abakan
    Aug 25, 2022 at 10:25

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