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Questions & Answers about Дружба помогает людям.
What case is людям in and why is that case used here?
Людям is in the dative plural (отвечает на вопрос «кому?»). In Russian the verb помогать (to help) requires its object (the one who receives help) in the dative case, so you always say помогать кому? — людям.
Why is there no preposition before людям?
The verb помогать directly governs the dative case without any preposition. If you added a preposition (like к людям), it would either be redundant or change the meaning (e.g. “toward the people” rather than “help the people”).
What is the form помогает here (person, number, tense, aspect)?
Помогает is the 3rd person singular, present tense, imperfective aspect of the verb помогать. Imperfective aspect means a general or habitual action (“Friendship helps people [in general]”), not focusing on a single completed event.
What’s the difference between the imperfective помогать and the perfective помочь?
- Помогать (imperfective) describes ongoing, repeated or habitual help.
- Помочь (perfective) describes a single, completed act of helping.
Example:
• Дружба помогает людям (friendship helps people, generally).
• Дружба помогла людям (friendship helped people [on that occasion]).
Can I change the word order, for example say Людям помогает дружба? Does it still mean the same?
Yes. Russian has fairly flexible word order. Людям помогает дружба is grammatically correct and still means “Friendship helps people,” but placing дружба at the end adds emphasis to the word “friendship.”
What is the gender and declension of дружба, and how would you decline it in singular?
Дружба is a feminine noun of the 1st declension (ending in -а). Singular forms are:
- Nom. дружба
- Gen. дружбы
- Dat. дружбе
- Acc. дружбу
- Inst. дружбой
- Prep. о дружбе
How could I replace людям with a pronoun?
The dative plural pronoun “them” is им. So you could say:
Дружба помогает им.
How do you pronounce Дружба помогает людям (stress and sounds)?
[druʐˈba pəmɐˈɡaet ˈlʲudʲim]
Stress is on дру́жба, помога́ет and лю́дям.