Word
Он смог занять первое место во второй лиге.
Meaning
He was able to take first place in the second league.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Он смог занять первое место во второй лиге.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
место
place, seat
в
in / to (direction)
первый
first (1st)
Questions & Answers about Он смог занять первое место во второй лиге.
Why is it во второй лиге instead of в второй лиге?
The preposition в (in) becomes во before words starting with certain consonant clusters, especially those beginning with в or ф. Since второй starts with вт-, saying в второй would be a mouthful, so Russian adds the extra о to make it easier to pronounce.
What case is второй лиге in?
It is in the prepositional case to show location (in the second league). For feminine words, the ordinal number вторая (second) changes to второй in all cases except the accusative. This means the feminine prepositional form looks exactly like the masculine nominative form, which can be a bit tricky!
Why use the perfective verb смог instead of the imperfective мог?
Смог emphasizes that he didn't just have the ability, but that he actually succeeded in achieving the result. If you used мог, it would mean he had the potential to take first place, but we wouldn't know if he actually did it.
Why does первое место look like it is in the nominative case?