Questions & Answers about Мёд и лимон помогают при простуде.
Why is помогают in the third-person plural?
The subject мёд и лимон is a compound subject—two singular nouns joined by и—so the verb agrees in number and becomes plural. In other words, “honey and lemon” = “they,” hence пomогают (они помогают).
What case is простуде, and why do we use при here?
простуде is in the prepositional case. The preposition при + prepositional expresses “in the case of” or “when you have” a cold. It indicates the circumstance under which something works.
Could we use с простудой or a dative form instead of при простуде?
You can say с простудой (instrumental) to mean “with a cold,” but it’s less idiomatic for remedies. при простуде is standard to describe a remedy’s condition of use (“when you have a cold”). You cannot say помогают простуде (dative) because that would literally mean “they help the cold itself,” which is not the intended meaning.
What is the nuance of помогают in this sentence? Isn’t помогать “to help someone”?
Here помогают means “to be effective” or “to work,” not literally “to help the cold.” It means “honey and lemon are useful when you have a cold,” rather than “they help the cold.”