Word
Нужно обжаловать счёт за коммунальные услуги.
Meaning
The utility bill needs to be appealed formally.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Нужно обжаловать счёт за коммунальные услуги.
нужно
necessary
счёт за коммунальные услуги
the utility bill
обжаловать
to appeal formally
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Questions & Answers about Нужно обжаловать счёт за коммунальные услуги.
Why is there no subject in this sentence? Who has to do it?
Russian often uses impersonal sentences where English would say someone needs to... or it is necessary to...
Here, Нужно + infinitive means it is necessary to ... / need to ...
So Нужно обжаловать... literally works like:
- It is necessary to appeal/dispute...
- One needs to appeal/dispute...
The person is not named. The context tells you who is supposed to act.
What exactly does нужно mean here?
Нужно is an impersonal predicate meaning:
- it is necessary
- it is needed
- need to
In this pattern, it is followed by an infinitive:
- Нужно обжаловать = It is necessary to appeal/dispute
- Нужно оплатить = It is necessary to pay
- Нужно проверить = It is necessary to check
A learner should notice that нужно does not agree with a subject here, because there is no explicit subject.
Why is обжаловать in the infinitive?