Я попросил продавца дать сдачу мелкими монетами.

I asked the seller to give me the change in small coins.

Breakdown of Я попросил продавца дать сдачу мелкими монетами.

• я: I
• дать: to give
• попросить: to ask
• мелкий: small
• монета: coin
• продавец: seller
• сдача: change

Questions & Answers about Я попросил продавца дать сдачу мелкими монетами.

Why is продавца in the form продавца (and not продавец / продавцу)?

Because it’s the direct object of попросил in the pattern попросить кого (Acc.) + infinitive:
Я попросил продавца дать… = I asked the clerk to give…
For masculine animate nouns, the accusative singular equals the genitive singular in form, so продавца is accusative here (even though it looks like genitive).

Could I also say Я попросил у продавца…? What’s the difference?

Yes, but it changes the structure:

• Я попросил продавца дать сдачу… = I asked the clerk (as a person) to do an action.
• Я попросил у продавца сдачу… = I asked from the clerk for something (the thing is the object: сдачу).
  Both are natural; the first is more like “asked him to do X,” the second is more like “requested X from him.”

Why is дать an infinitive here?

Russian commonly uses попросить + infinitive to express “ask someone to do something”:
попросил (кого?) продавца (что сделать?) дать.

Why is it дать (perfective) and not давать (imperfective)?

Because this request is about a single, completed action: “give (once).”

• дать (perfective) = give once / achieve the result
• давать (imperfective) would sound like “give repeatedly / in general,” which doesn’t match a normal request for change.

Why is сдачу in сдачу (accusative)?

Because дать takes a direct object in the accusative: дать что? сдачу.
сдача here means “change” (money returned when you pay more than the price).

Is дать сдачу a fixed phrase? Are there alternatives?

It’s a very common phrase. Alternatives include:

• выдать сдачу (more formal/official “issue change”)
• дать мне сдачу (explicit me)
• In some contexts: разменять (to break a bill/coin), e.g. Не разменяете? (different construction and meaning nuance).

Why is it мелкими монетами (instrumental plural)?

Instrumental often expresses “by means of / using / in the form of.”
So дать сдачу мелкими монетами means “to give change using small coins / in small coins.”
Grammatically: монетами is instrumental plural; мелкими agrees with it (instrumental plural).

Could I replace мелкими монетами with a single word like “small change”?

Yes. Very common options:

• мелочью = “in small change” (instrumental singular of мелочь)
  So: Я попросил продавца дать сдачу мелочью.
  That’s often even more natural in everyday speech.

What exactly does мелкими mean here? “Small” or “low-value”?

Both ideas overlap. мелкие монеты means coins of small denomination (low value), not physically small coins. It’s about 1, 2, 5, 10 (etc.) rather than large coins/bills.

Is the word order fixed? Can I move things around?

It’s flexible. Variants are possible with slightly different emphasis:

• Я попросил продавца дать сдачу мелкими монетами. (neutral)
• Я попросил продавца дать мелкими монетами сдачу. (emphasis on how you want it)
• Я попросил дать сдачу мелкими монетами. (subject/person understood from context)

Can I drop Я?

Yes. Russian often omits the subject pronoun when it’s obvious:

• Попросил продавца дать сдачу мелкими монетами.
  This sounds like conversational storytelling (“(I) asked…”).

Does продавец mean “seller” or “salesperson/clerk”?

In this context it usually means “shop assistant / clerk / salesperson,” the person working behind the counter. It can also literally mean “seller,” but in everyday store situations it’s the standard word for the employee you interact with.

Where is the stress in the tricky words?

Common stresses here:

• попроси́л
• продавца́
• да́ть
• сда́чу
• ме́лкими
• моне́тами