Breakdown of Компания смогла удержать клиента.
клиент
the client
компания
the company
смочь
to manage
удержать
to hold back; retain (perfective)
Questions & Answers about Компания смогла удержать клиента.
Why is смогла used here, and what does its ending tell me?
Смогла is the past tense feminine singular form of смочь (to be able to, to manage to).
Why feminine? Because the subject is компания (company), and компания is a feminine noun in Russian.
So the agreement works like this:
- он смог — he managed to
- она смогла — she managed to
- оно смогло — it managed to
- они смогли — they managed to
Even though a company is not a woman, Russian grammar still treats компания as feminine because the noun itself is feminine.
Why is the subject компания in the nominative case?
The noun компания is the subject of the sentence — it is the one performing the action. In Russian, the subject is normally in the nominative case.
So here:
- Компания = the company
- it is the one that managed
- therefore it stays in the nominative
This is the basic dictionary form of the noun.
Why is клиента used instead of клиент?