Два/дві, три, чотири and обидва/обидві

The numerals два - дві, три, чотири, and обидва - обидві 'both' are con­structed with the plural forms of the noun, with the qualification that if the stress of the nominative plural is different from that of the genitive singular, then the stress (but not the form, where the forms are different) of the genitive Singular is taken. Thus:

Nom. sg. Gen. sg. Nom pl.

два брати брат брата брати two brothers

два села село села села two villages

дві голови голова голови голови two heads

три міста місто міста міста three towns

чотири книжки книжка книжки книжки four books

A look at the masculine noun above confirms that it is the nominative plural, ttot the genitive singular, that occurs with such numbers Other examples of Mlasculmes make this absolutely clear два дні 'two days', три будинки 'three ouildmgs', and likewise A very few exceptions seem to exist words in -анин, -янин, and -ин take the genitive singular, for example, два/три/чотири росіянина 'two/three/four Russians'. This applies in general to nouns whose plural stem is different from their singular stem, for example,

дві дитини two children (plural діти, singular дитина)

дві дівчини two girls (plural дівчата, singular дівчина)

два імені two (first) names (plural імена, singular ім'я)

One may find collectives with animates with such forms, for example, двоє росіян 'two Russians', четверо дітей 'four children'. One also finds the geni­tive singular where the noun refers to something occurring in pairs, though this arguably overlaps with the two-stem case, for example два вуха 'two ears', три ока 'three eyes', чотири плеча 'four shoulders' (nominative plural of the last two очі, плечі respectively, citation forms око, плече; note that, though these may refer to pairs, there is no restriction to using два with them).

One needs also to note that an adjective after these numerals will go either into the nominative plural or into the genitive plural, thus два нові/нових будинки 'two new buildings', три нові/нових хати 'three new houses', чотири нові/нових села 'four new villages'.

What was said above applied only when the syntax of the sentence requires the nominative case (or the inanimate accusative). When any other case is required, the numeral and noun phrase go into that case. This may seem to be a superfluous comment; however, it does reflect the special treat­ment of the adjective, and the use of the genitive form and genitive stress just mentioned. Thus, for example:

Я знаю тих двох молодих хлопців.

І know those two young boys.

Він дасть книжки тим ста шістдесятьом двом дівчатам.

He'll give the books to those 162 girls

Note, from the last example, that a pronoun precedes the numeral and goes m the appropriate case - it is autonomous of the numeral, i.e. ті дві людини 'those two people' (this will be clearer immediately below, where we look at other numerals).