Breakdown of Традиции помогают сохранить память о предках.
помогать
to help
о
of
сохранить
to preserve
традиция
the tradition
память
the memory
предок
the ancestor
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Questions & Answers about Традиции помогают сохранить память о предках.
What case and number is традиции, and what is its role in the sentence?
традиции is the nominative plural form of традиция (“tradition”). It functions as the subject of the sentence, meaning “traditions” are doing the helping.
Why is the verb помогают in the third-person plural form?
Russian verbs agree in person and number with their subjects. Since традиции is third-person plural, the verb takes the third-person plural ending -ят (помогают), translating as “they help.”
Why is сохранить in the infinitive form rather than a conjugated tense?
In Russian, verbs like помогать (“to help”) are followed by another verb in the infinitive to indicate what action is being helped. The construction помогают + инфинитив means “(they) help (to) [do something],” so сохранить stays in its base form.
What case is память, and why is it used here?
память (“memory”) is in the accusative case as the direct object of сохранить (“to preserve”). For feminine nouns ending in a soft sign, the nominative and accusative singular are identical, so память looks the same in both cases.
Why do we use о предках with the preposition о, and what case is предках?
After память we use the preposition о (“about/of”) to indicate whom the memory is about. о requires the prepositional case, and the prepositional plural of предки (“ancestors”) is предках.
What’s the difference between сохранять and сохранить, and why is the perfective used here?
These are two aspects of the same verb:
- сохранять is imperfective, focusing on an ongoing or habitual action (“to be preserving”).
- сохранить is perfective, focusing on the completion or result (“to preserve”). In this sentence the infinitive perfective сохранить emphasizes the achieved preservation of memory.
Can I use хранить память о предках instead of сохранять память о предках, and is there any nuance?
Yes. хранить and сохранять both mean “to preserve/keep.”
• хранить often carries a nuance of “to keep safe” or “to store.”
• сохранять emphasizes “to maintain” or “to continue preserving.”
In this context they’re largely interchangeable.
Where is the stress in предках, and how do I pronounce it in English letters?
The stress is on the first syllable: прÉд-ках. You can approximate it as PREHT-kahkh, where “kh” sounds like the Scottish “loch.”