Why is вышинa in genitive case? And is “вот такой” an expression or something? Like what does “вот такой” mean?
Thanks!
It’s a line from the song. You can’t expect all rules of the grammar also in English songs.
We say “вот такой” when we show the size of something.
It’s like ‘the mountainds of a big size’.
Where you you use ‘of’’ in English, we use Genitive case.
More or less: “The mountains in Africa are high (literally “are of height”) like this”.
You would use this “вот такой” - “like this” when you point out or show something as a model or example, without nameing the exact quality or size.
Here (in the song) it has just the general meaning “very high”.
Example: “Я поймал вот такую рыбу” (stressing “вот такую” and showing the size by hands - in a fisherman’s narrative) - “I’ve caught a fish like this”.
But pay attention to the case. If this expression goes before the noun - accusative:; if it is after the noun - Genitive:
Я поймал вот такую рыбу.
Но: Я поймал рыбу вот такой величины.