Breakdown of Перед экзаменом мне стоит проверить, есть ли бензин в баке, и повторить, когда включать поворотник и как тормозить.
Questions & Answers about Перед экзаменом мне стоит проверить, есть ли бензин в баке, и повторить, когда включать поворотник и как тормозить.
Перед means before in the sense of immediately preceding / in front of the event (often “right before”). It requires the instrumental case, so экзамен → экзаменом.
До also means before, but more like prior to / earlier than and it takes the genitive: до экзамена.
Both can work, but перед экзаменом feels very natural for “right before the exam.”
Мне стоит + infinitive means it’s worth it for me / I should / it would be a good idea for me to…
It’s an impersonal construction: the “person who should do it” is expressed in the dative.
So мне (dative of я) = “for me / as for me.”
Comparable patterns: мне нужно, мне можно, мне нельзя, мне пора.
It’s usually softer than obligation. It suggests recommendation / advisability (“I should / I’d better / it’s worth”).
For stronger necessity you’d more likely see мне нужно, мне необходимо, or я должен.
Проверить is perfective, implying one completed check (a single action before the exam). That fits the context well.
Проверять (imperfective) would suggest checking in general / as a habit / repeatedly, which is less likely here unless you’re emphasizing an ongoing routine.
есть ли = whether there is.
Here ли marks an embedded yes/no question inside the sentence:
- проверить, есть ли бензин в баке = “check whether there is gas in the tank.”
если есть = “if there is,” which sets up a condition (usually leading to a consequence), e.g. Если есть бензин, поедем. (“If there’s gas, we’ll go.”)
But here you’re not stating a condition—you’re checking a fact—so ли is the right tool.
Ли usually comes right after the element being questioned. In есть ли бензин, you’re questioning the existence (“is there gas?”).
Other possible word orders exist, but they change focus:
- бензин ли есть в баке = “is it gas that’s in the tank (not something else)?” (contrastive)
- есть ли в баке бензин = same meaning, different emphasis; often used to highlight the location first.
In simple statements, Russian often omits есть:
- В баке бензин. = “There’s gas in the tank.”
But in questions and especially with ли (“whether”), есть is commonly used to clearly express existence:
- Есть ли бензин в баке? = “Is there gas in the tank?”
Omitting it is possible in some contexts, but есть ли is the most standard, neutral phrasing.
Good catch: Russian uses different cases depending on whether you’re talking about presence or absence.
- Presence/existence: есть бензин → nominative (бензин)
- Absence/negation: нет бензина → genitive (бензина)
So:
- Есть ли бензин в баке? (presence)
- Нет бензина в баке. (absence)
В + location typically takes the prepositional case (where?):
- бак → в баке (“in the tank”)
If it were motion into the tank (where to?), it would be в бак (accusative):
- налить бензин в бак = “pour gas into the tank”
The sentence has one main idea: what it’s advisable to do before the exam. After мне стоит, two actions are coordinated with и:
1) проверить, есть ли…
2) повторить, когда… и как…
So both infinitives depend on стоит:
- мне стоит (что сделать?) проверить … и повторить …
The commas separate each infinitive from its attached clause(s).
Here повторить means review / go over again (to memorize), like reviewing rules before an exam.
If you meant “repeat aloud,” you’d usually need context or an object like повторить слова (“repeat the words”).
These are embedded “question-clauses” introduced by когда (when) and как (how). After verbs like повторить / вспомнить / узнать / объяснить, Russian often uses:
(verb) + когда/как/где/что + infinitive
So:
- повторить, когда включать поворотник = “review when to use the turn signal”
- (повторить,) как тормозить = “(review) how to brake”
It’s similar to English “when to…” / “how to…”
Поворотник is a very common, informal/colloquial word meaning turn signal / indicator.
More formal/technical options include:
- указатель поворота
- сигнал поворота
In everyday speech (especially about driving), поворотник is extremely natural.
Not naturally. Without когда, повторить включать поворотник doesn’t sound right, because повторить needs what exactly you’re reviewing. The когда… clause provides the needed structure: “review when (you should) turn it on.”
If you wanted a noun phrase instead, you could say something like:
- повторить правила включения поворотника = “review the rules for using the turn signal”
The commas mark boundaries of clauses and parallel items:
- повторить, когда… и как…
Both когда… and как… are dependent “question-like” clauses attached to повторить, and they’re coordinated with и.
In writing, Russian typically uses a comma before the first dependent clause after the infinitive (повторить, когда…). The comma before как helps show that как тормозить is a second parallel dependent part.
(You may sometimes see punctuation variations depending on style, but this punctuation is common and clear.)