Я ни к кому не подошёл с оружием, у меня была надежда.
I approached no one with a weapon, I had hope.
Breakdown of Я ни к кому не подошёл с оружием, у меня была надежда.
не
not
я
I
меня
me
у
at, by
быть
to be
никто
nobody
с
with (also со)
к
towards, to
подойти
to approach, to come up to
оружие
weapon
надежда
hope
Questions & Answers about Я ни к кому не подошёл с оружием, у меня была надежда.
Why is it ни к кому instead of just к никому?
This is the main rule for negative pronouns with prepositions! When a negative pronoun like никто (nobody) is used with a preposition like к (to/towards), the preposition jumps right into the middle, splitting it into three words: ни + к + кому. We use кому because the preposition к always requires the Dative case.
Since we already said 'no one' with ни к кому, why is there a не before подошёл?
Russian requires 'double negatives.' Whenever you use a negative pronoun or adverb in a sentence, you must also negate the verb with не. Literally, this sentence says 'I to no one did not approach.'
Why do we use the preposition к with подошёл?
The verb подойти (to approach / to walk up to) and its past tense form подошёл are built with the prefix под-. Verbs of motion with this prefix usually pair with the preposition к (to/towards) to show exactly who or what you are getting close to.
Why is 'weapon' written as оружием here?
Because it follows the preposition с meaning 'with', which requires the Instrumental case. The dictionary form is оружие (a neuter noun), and its Instrumental ending is -ем, making it с оружием.
Why does the second part say была надежда and not было надежда?
In Russian, 'I had' is expressed as у меня была (literally 'by me was'). The thing you had is the actual grammatical subject of the sentence. Since надежда (hope) is a feminine noun, the past tense verb 'was' must match it and be feminine: была.
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