Learn Hardcore Russian: Мой тренер помогает мне улучшить навыки и показывает новые упражнения. - My coach helps me improve my skills and shows me new exercises.

In Russian, when a verb like помогать (to help) is followed by another verb indicating the action being assisted, that verb is used in the infinitive form. In this sentence, улучшить (to improve) is in the infinitive form to show that the coach helps with the action of improving skills, much like saying “helps me to improve” in English.

Why is the pronoun мне used instead of меня?

The verb помогать requires its indirect object—the person receiving the help—to be in the dative case. Мне is the dative form of the pronoun, meaning “to me.” Using меня (the accusative form) would be incorrect in this context.

How does the compound predicate work in this sentence?

The sentence features two main actions performed by the subject Мой тренер (my coach). The first part, помогает мне улучшить навыки (helps me improve my skills), uses an infinitive to indicate the action being supported. The second part, и показывает новые упражнения (and shows new exercises), is connected with the coordinating conjunction и (and) to list an additional, distinct action. This compound structure is common in Russian to link related actions by the same subject.

How do adjectives and nouns agree in the phrase новые упражнения?

In Russian, adjectives must agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number, and case. Here, новые is the plural form of новый (new) and agrees with the noun упражнения (exercises), which is also in the plural. Both appear in the accusative case; for inanimate nouns in the plural, the accusative form is identical to the nominative.

Can this sentence be split into two separate sentences, and if so, how?

Yes, you can split it for clarity. One way to do so is: Мой тренер помогает мне улучшить навыки. Он показывает новые упражнения. This division maintains the original meaning by clearly presenting the two distinct actions of the coach.

Is the use of the coordinating conjunction и standard for linking the two actions in this sentence?

Yes, the conjunction и is used to connect multiple verbs or clauses in Russian. In this sentence, it links the two actions that the coach performs—helping improve skills and showing new exercises—indicating that both actions are performed by the same subject without any ambiguity.

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