Breakdown of Стоит нам повесить гирлянду, как даже обычная комната становится уютнее.
становиться
to become
комната
the room
даже
even
нам
us
Questions & Answers about Стоит нам повесить гирлянду, как даже обычная комната становится уютнее.
What does стоит mean here? It doesn’t look like to stand.
Here стоит is part of an idiomatic construction, not the literal verb to stand.
Стоит + dative + infinitive means something like:
- one has only to ...
- as soon as ...
- it takes only ... for ... to happen
So:
Стоит нам повесить гирлянду, как...
= As soon as we hang up a garland / string of lights, ...
= We only have to hang up a garland, and ...
This is a very common Russian pattern.
Why is it нам, not мы?
Because the construction стоит кому-то сделать что-то requires the person in the dative case.
So:
- мы = we (nominative)
- нам = to us / for us (dative)
In this pattern, Russian treats the person as the one for whom it is enough to do something:
- Стоит мне позвонить... = As soon as I call...
- Стоит тебе спросить... = You only have to ask...
- Стоит нам повесить гирлянду... = As soon as we hang up the lights...
So нам is required by the grammar of this expression.