Breakdown of Можно взять пакет бананов?
банан
banana
взять
to take / to adopt
можно
one may, it is allowed
пакет
bag (plastic or paper)
Questions & Answers about Можно взять пакет бананов?
Why does бананов end in -ов?
It is the genitive plural form of банан. Because банан is a masculine noun ending in a hard consonant, it takes the -ов ending in the genitive plural to mean 'of bananas.'
Why isn't there a word for 'of' before бананов?
In Russian, you do not need a separate preposition to say 'of' when talking about quantities or containers. Putting the word in the genitive case does that job automatically. So пакет бананов translates perfectly to 'a bag of bananas'.
Is пакет in the nominative case here?
It is actually in the accusative case because it is the direct object (the thing being taken). However, for inanimate (non-living) masculine nouns like пакет, the accusative form looks exactly the same as the dictionary (nominative) form.
Why use the perfective verb взять here instead of the imperfective брать?
You use the perfective взять because you are asking about a single, specific, and complete action: taking this one bag of bananas right now. If you were asking if it is generally allowed to take bags of bananas, you would use брать.
Where is the word for 'I' in this sentence?
The word можно means 'it is allowed' or 'is it possible.' When asking a basic permission question, Russians often leave out the 'I' entirely and just pair можно directly with the infinitive verb взять (is it allowed to take).
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