Question 1

Why is себе used here instead of ему (him)?

Accepted Answer

Себе is the Dative form of the reflexive pronoun себя (oneself). Whenever the receiver of an action is the same as the subject of the sentence (here, он / he), you must use a form of себя. If you said он покупает подарки только ему, it would mean he is buying gifts for a different male person, not himself!

Question 2

Why is себе in the Dative case instead of using a preposition like для (for)?

Accepted Answer

In English we say "buys for himself," but in Russian, the person receiving a gift or favor is usually put directly into the Dative case without a preposition. So покупает себе is structured more like "buys to himself." While для себя (which uses the Genitive case) is grammatically possible, using just the Dative case is the most common and natural way to express doing something for someone's benefit.

Question 3

The dictionary word for "gift" is подарок. Why does it change to подарки without the "о"?

Accepted Answer

The word подарок has what is called a "fleeting vowel." When you change the word to its plural form (adding -и for the Accusative plural in this sentence), that last о drops out to make the word flow better. So it becomes подарки, rather than the clunky-sounding подароки.

Question 4

Why is there a dash (—) between брат and эгоист?

Accepted Answer

In the present tense, Russian leaves out the verb "to be" (is/am/are). When both the subject (брат) and the word describing what it is (эгоист) are nouns in the Nominative case, a long dash is used in writing to stand in for that missing "is".

Мой брат — эгоист, он покупает подарки только себе.

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