Breakdown of Мне нужен точный адрес библиотеки.
я
I
библиотека
the library
нужный
necessary
адрес
the address
Questions & Answers about Мне нужен точный адрес библиотеки.
Why does the sentence start with мне instead of я?
Because Russian expresses need differently here.
In English, we say I need..., where I is the subject.
In Russian, нужен / нужна / нужно / нужны works more like:
- to be needed
- to be necessary to someone
So мне нужен точный адрес библиотеки literally feels like:
- To me, the exact address of the library is needed.
That is why Russian uses мне, which is the dative case of я.
- я = I
- мне = to me / for me
This pattern is very common:
- Мне нужен билет. = I need a ticket.
- Ему нужна помощь. = He needs help.
- Нам нужны документы. = We need documents.
Why is it нужен and not нужно, нужна, or нужны?