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Questions & Answers about Людям нужно уважение.
Why is Людям in the dative case instead of the nominative?
In Russian, when you say “X needs Y,” the experiencer (the one who needs something) goes into the dative case. Here Людям (to people) shows who needs respect. The thing needed (уважение) is handled separately.
Why is уважение in the nominative case?
In the impersonal construction кому-то нужно что-то (“someone needs something”), the thing that is needed stands in the nominative case. Grammatically, уважение is the “subject” of the short-form adjective нужно, so it remains in the nominative.
Why is it нужно and not нужен or нужна?
The short-form adjective “нужен” agrees with the gender and number of the noun that follows. Since уважение is a neuter singular noun, the correct form is the neuter нужно.
What part of speech is нужно here?
Here нужно is the short-form neuter adjective of нужный. It functions impersonally, equivalent to “necessary” or “to need,” and is used in the pattern кому-то нужно что-то.
Can I say Им нужно уважение instead of Людям нужно уважение?
Yes. Им is the dative pronoun “to them,” so Им нужно уважение is perfectly natural and a bit more colloquial than using Людям.
What’s the difference between Людям нужно уважение and Люди нуждаются в уважении?
Both mean “People need respect,” but they use different grammatical patterns.
- Людям нужно уважение: impersonal adjective нужно
- dative + nominative.
- Люди нуждаются в уважении: verb нуждаться
- preposition в
- prepositional case.
The second is slightly more formal or literary.
- prepositional case.
- preposition в
Why isn’t there a preposition before уважение?
Because in the construction кому-то нужно что-то, the thing needed takes the nominative case directly without any preposition. Adding a preposition would break the standard pattern.
Could I use an infinitive instead and say Людям нужно уважать?
You can say Людям нужно уважать, but that changes the meaning: it becomes “People need to respect (someone)” and requires a direct object (e.g., Людям нужно уважать друг друга). To express the need for respect itself, use the noun уважение.