Breakdown of Мне трудно учить новые слова без словаря.
я
I
новый
new
слово
the word
словарь
the dictionary
без
without
учить
to learn
трудно
hard
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Questions & Answers about Мне трудно учить новые слова без словаря.
Why is there no explicit subject in the phrase мне трудно, and what kind of construction is this?
This is an impersonal construction. Russian often omits a grammatical subject when expressing sensations or states like difficulty, cold, or hunger. Instead of “It is hard for me,” you literally say “To me (мне) [it is] hard (трудно),” with no subject pronoun.
Why is мне in the dative case rather than the nominative?
In impersonal constructions expressing feelings or states, the person who experiences that state takes the dative case. Here мне (dative of я) marks the experiencer of the difficulty.
What part of speech is трудно, and how does it function in this sentence?
Трудно is a predicative adverb (or modal word) used as the main “verb” of an impersonal construction. It describes the difficulty of the action for the experiencer.
Why is учить in the infinitive form, and which aspect does it have?
Учить is an imperfective infinitive, showing an ongoing or repeated action: “to study/learn” new words in general. Infinitives in Russian often follow words like трудно, because they describe what is hard to do.
Could you use выучить instead of учить, and what difference would it make?
Yes. Выучить is the perfective infinitive (“to learn completely”). Saying мне трудно выучить новые слова без словаря shifts focus to completing the learning process as a whole rather than the activity of studying itself.
What case are новые слова in, and why?
They’re in the accusative plural. As inanimate masculine nouns, the accusative form of новые слова coincides with the nominative. This case marks them as the direct object of учить.
Why is there no article before новые слова like “the” or “a”?
Russian has no articles. Number, definiteness, or indefiniteness is inferred from context, word order, or additional words (e.g., эти “these,” какие-то “some”).
Why is без словаря in the genitive case?
The preposition без (without) requires the genitive case. Hence словарь (dictionary) becomes словаря in genitive singular.
Can you change the word order, for example moving без словаря to the front? Does it affect the meaning?
Yes. Russian has flexible word order. Без словаря мне трудно учить новые слова puts extra focus on the lack of a dictionary, but the basic meaning stays the same.
Is сложно interchangeable with трудно, and are there any stylistic or nuance differences?
They’re near synonyms: both mean “hard/difficult.” Сложно often emphasizes complexity or intricacy, while трудно highlights effort or struggle. In many contexts you can use either without a huge change in meaning.