Breakdown of Ничто не пугает вождя со священным знаменем.
не
not
с
with (also со)
ничто
nothing (nominative)
пугать
to frighten
вождь
the chief
священный
sacred
знамя
the banner
Questions & Answers about Ничто не пугает вождя со священным знаменем.
Why does the word for banner (знамя) change to знаменем here?
Знамя is one of the special neuter nouns ending in -мя, just like имя and время. In all cases except the nominative and accusative, these nouns insert the suffix -ен- into their stem. Since it follows со (with), it must be in the instrumental case. We take the stem знамен- and add the standard neuter instrumental ending -ем, creating знаменем.
Why does the sentence use со instead of just с for "with"?
Russian often adds an о to с to make pronunciation easier before words that start with certain consonant clusters. This happens most often when the following word starts with с or з plus another consonant. Because священным starts with св, the preposition becomes со.
The dictionary form of chief is вождь. Why is it written as вождя here?
The chief is the direct object being scared, which means the noun must be in the accusative case. Because вождь is an animate masculine noun (representing a living person), its accusative form copies its genitive form, taking the ending -я.
Why does the sentence use both ничто and не?
Russian grammar requires double negatives. Whenever you use a negative pronoun like ничто (nothing) or никто (nobody) in a sentence, you must also place не directly in front of the verb.
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