Breakdown of Мне нужно лекарство для полёта.
мне
to me
нужен
needed (нужен, нужна, нужны)
для
for
лекарство
medicine
полёт
flight
Questions & Answers about Мне нужно лекарство для полёта.
Why do we use Мне instead of Я to say 'I need'?
In Russian, the 'I need' construction literally translates to 'To me is necessary'. The person who needs something is put in the Dative case, so Я (I) becomes Мне (to me).
Why is the word for 'need' spelled as нужно here?
In this construction, the thing you need is the grammatical subject. The word лекарство (medicine) is a neuter noun, so the word for 'necessary' must take the neuter form нужно. If you needed a masculine noun, you would use нужен.
Why does the word for flight change to полёта?
The preposition для (for) expresses purpose and always requires the following noun to be in the Genitive case. Since полёт (flight) is a masculine noun ending in a consonant, we add -а to form the Genitive singular полёта.
Could I use the preposition за instead of для to mean 'for'?
No, за is generally used for exchanges (like paying 'for' something) or acting on behalf of someone. To express the intended purpose of an object, you must use для.
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