Breakdown of Нам было интересно изучать этот климат.
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
изучать
to study
быть
to be
нам
to us
интересно
interesting (adverb)
климат
climate
Questions & Answers about Нам было интересно изучать этот климат.
Why do we use the neuter verb было instead of a plural verb to match 'we'?
This is an impersonal expression, meaning there is no grammatical subject like 'we' doing an action. Just like English says 'It was interesting', Russian expresses this 'it' using the neuter past tense verb было alongside the adverb интересно.
Why does the sentence start with нам instead of мы?
In Russian impersonal sentences, the person experiencing the feeling or situation is put in the dative case. Нам is the dative form of мы. You can think of it literally as 'To us it was interesting.'
What case is этот климат in? It looks exactly like the dictionary form.
It is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb изучать (to study). Since климат is a masculine inanimate noun (not a living person or animal), its accusative form looks exactly the same as its nominative form. The word этот follows the same rule.
Could we use the perfective verb изучить instead of изучать here?
You could, but it changes the focus. The imperfective изучать highlights the ongoing process of studying, which fits perfectly with enjoying the activity itself over time. The perfective изучить would mean you found the final result of completely figuring out the climate interesting.
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