Я не могу представить себе сад без ярких цветов.

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Breakdown of Я не могу представить себе сад без ярких цветов.

• не: not
• яркий: bright
• цветок: the flower

Questions & Answers about Я не могу представить себе сад без ярких цветов.

Can you give a literal, word-for-word breakdown of Я не могу представить себе сад без ярких цветов?

Я – I
не – not
могу – can / am able to
представить – (perfective infinitive) to imagine
себе – to myself
сад – garden (accusative; inanimate masculine stays the same)
без – without
ярких – bright (genitive plural of яркий)
цветов – flowers (genitive plural of цветок)

Put together it literally reads: “I not can imagine to myself garden without bright flowers,” i.e. “I can’t imagine a garden without bright flowers.”

Why is себе used after представить?

The verb представить (to imagine) normally takes a dative object to indicate who is doing the imagining. You ask представить кому? (“to imagine to whom?”). Here себе is the dative form of “myself,” so it literally means “to imagine to myself.” Omitting себе isn’t grammatically wrong (“Я не могу представить сад…”), but including it is the most natural way to say “I can’t imagine.”

Why does сад look the same in this sentence as it does in the dictionary (nominative) form?

Сад is an inanimate masculine noun. In Russian, the accusative singular of inanimate masc. nouns is identical to the nominative. Since представить takes a direct object in the accusative, сад remains unchanged.