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Questions & Answers about Я допомагаю друзям.
What does each word in the sentence “Я допомагаю друзям” mean?
Я means I; допомагаю is the first-person singular present tense form of the verb допомагати, meaning help or am helping; and друзям is the dative plural form of друзі, meaning friends. Even though its overall meaning (“I help friends”) is already known, breaking down the sentence like this helps clarify how each word functions grammatically.
Why is the noun “friends” in the dative case (друзям) rather than in its nominative form (друзі)?
The verb допомагати governs the dative case in Ukrainian. This means that the recipient of the action—in this case, the ones being helped—must appear in the dative case. Hence, друзі (nominative plural) becomes друзям (dative plural) to answer the question “to whom?” you are providing help.
What does the form допомагаю tell us about the verb’s person, number, and tense?
Допомагаю is the first-person singular form in the present tense of the verb допомагати. The ending -аю indicates that the subject is Я (I) and the action of helping is occurring in the present time or is a habitual action. This conjugation matches the subject with its corresponding verb form.
How do you form the dative plural of the noun друзі to get друзям, and is this a common pattern in Ukrainian?
The transformation from друзі (nominative plural) to друзям (dative plural) follows common Ukrainian declension rules for masculine animate nouns. In many such cases, the dative plural is formed by adding the ending -ям to the noun’s stem. This pattern is widely used to indicate the indirect object of a sentence, especially with verbs like допомагати that require the dative case.
Can the word order in “Я допомагаю друзям” be changed without altering its meaning?
Yes, Ukrainian typically allows flexible word order compared to English. Although the order in “Я допомагаю друзям” follows a subject-verb-object (dative) pattern, rearranging the sentence (for example, “Друзям я допомагаю”) is perfectly acceptable. Changing the word order may emphasize one part of the sentence over another, but the overall meaning remains the same.