Breakdown of Маленьким детям было тяжело обходить новые препятствия.
новый
new
маленький
small
быть
to be
дети
children
тяжело
hard / heavily
обходить
to go around (impf)
препятствие
the obstacle
Questions & Answers about Маленьким детям было тяжело обходить новые препятствия.
How does the prefix об- change the verb ходить in this sentence?
The prefix об- adds the meaning of moving around or bypassing something. Here, ходить (to walk) becomes обходить (to walk around). As your current lesson covers, verbs with this prefix take a direct object in the Accusative case, which is exactly what we see with новые препятствия (the new obstacles).
Why is the imperfective verb обходить used here instead of the perfective обойти?
The imperfective emphasizes the ongoing process of going around the obstacles or the fact that the children had to do it repeatedly. If the sentence was about successfully bypassing an obstacle one single time with a focus on the result, the perfective обойти would be used.
Why is Маленьким детям (little children) in the Dative case?
This sentence uses an impersonal construction with the short word тяжело (hard/difficult). In Russian, when you express that it is hard for someone, or that someone is cold or sad, the person experiencing the feeling is the indirect object and must be in the Dative case.
What case is новые препятствия in? It looks like the Nominative.
It is actually in the Accusative case, plural. It is the direct object receiving the action of обходить. Because препятствие (obstacle) is an inanimate noun, its Accusative plural form looks exactly identical to its Nominative plural form.
Could we use трудно instead of тяжело here?
Yes, трудно and тяжело are often interchangeable when meaning difficult. However, тяжело literally relates to heaviness and often implies physical exertion. This makes it a great fit for the physical effort of navigating an obstacle course.
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