Word
Эти студенты помогают нашим новым волонтёрам.
Meaning
These students help our new volunteers.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Эти студенты помогают нашим новым волонтёрам.
студент
student (m)
новый
new
наш
our
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
Questions & Answers about Эти студенты помогают нашим новым волонтёрам.
Why is "volunteers" in the Dative case (волонтёрам) instead of the Accusative case?
In Russian, the verb помогать (to help) always requires the person receiving the help to be in the Dative case, not the Accusative (which is typically used for direct objects). Since there are multiple volunteers, the masculine noun волонтёр gets the Dative plural ending -ам.
Why does нашим end in -им while новым ends in -ым if they are both Dative plural?
Most standard adjectives take the hard ending -ым in the Dative plural, which is why we get новым. However, possessive words like наш (our) and ваш (your) use soft endings in their plural forms, so it becomes нашим.
Are эти студенты also in the Dative case?
No, эти студенты (these students) are the ones doing the helping, making them the subject of the sentence. Therefore, they are in the Nominative case (plural). Only the people receiving the help (нашим новым волонтёрам) are put into the Dative case.
Why is the word for "these" эти and not это?