Breakdown of Мы прятались под ветками, но ни у кого не брали воду.
не
not
вода
water
мы
we
у
at, by
но
but
никто
nobody
брать
to take (imperfective)
прятаться
to hide
под
under
ветка
branch
Questions & Answers about Мы прятались под ветками, но ни у кого не брали воду.
Why is the preposition у stuck in the middle of ни у кого?
This is the main rule for negative pronouns! When a word like никто (no one) needs a preposition, the preposition physically splits the word into three parts: ни + [preposition] + [pronoun]. Here, the preposition у splits никто in the Genitive case (никого) to make ни у кого.
Does Russian always use a double negative, like in ни у кого не брали?
Yes! Whenever you use a negative pronoun (like 'nobody' or 'nothing'), Russian strictly requires you to negate the verb as well with не. Literally, this translates to 'from no one we didn't take'.
Why use у to mean 'from' here instead of от?
When taking, borrowing, or buying something from a person, Russian typically uses the preposition у + Genitive case. Since we are saying we took water from no one (referring to people), we use у with the Genitive form of who (кого).
Why is the word for branches, ветки, written as ветками?
The preposition под (under) requires the Instrumental case when describing where something is located. Ветками is the Instrumental plural form of ветка (branch).
Why are both verbs, прятались and брали, in the imperfective aspect?
The sentence describes ongoing or repeated actions in the past. 'We were hiding' is a continuous state, and 'we weren't taking' water describes general behavior during that time, rather than a single completed event.
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