Word
Наставник помог мне.
Meaning
The workplace mentor helped me.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
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Questions & Answers about Наставник помог мне.
Why is it мне, not я or меня?
Because the verb помочь / помогать takes the dative case for the person who receives the help.
So:
- я = I (nominative)
- меня = me (accusative/genitive)
- мне = to me / me in the dative
Russian asks помочь кому? = to help whom?
Answer: мне.
So Наставник помог мне is grammatically The mentor helped me, but the structure is closer to helped to me.
What form is помог?
Помог is the past tense, masculine singular form of the verb помочь.
Key points:
- помочь = perfective infinitive, to help
- помог = helped / did help / helped successfully
It describes a completed action.
Compare:
- Наставник помог мне. = The mentor helped me.
- Наставник помогал мне. = The mentor was helping me / used to help me.
The second sentence uses the imperfective verb помогать.
Why does помог end in -г if the dictionary form is помочь?