Breakdown of Мы не видим улицу из-за этих грязных стёкол.
не
not
мы
we
улица
street
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
видеть
to see
грязный
dirty
из-за
because of; from behind
стекло
glass (material)
Questions & Answers about Мы не видим улицу из-за этих грязных стёкол.
Why does this sentence use из-за instead of a word like потому что?
Из-за is a preposition meaning 'because of', used with the Genitive case. It is used before a noun phrase (like этих грязных стёкол) to point to the cause of a situation, usually an obstacle or something with a negative effect. You would use потому что (because) to connect two full phrases with their own verbs, such as 'because the windows are dirty'.
What case is этих грязных стёкол and why?
It is in the Genitive plural. The preposition из-за always requires the Genitive case. Here, we are talking about multiple 'dirty windowpanes', so the demonstrative pronoun (эти), the adjective (грязные), and the noun (стёкла) all take their Genitive plural endings.
Why does the word стёкол have an 'о' inserted into it?
The dictionary form of this neuter noun is стекло (glass). In the Genitive plural, neuter nouns usually drop their final vowel. Doing that here would leave a hard-to-pronounce consonant cluster. To fix this, Russian inserts a 'fleeting vowel' о between the final consonants, changing it to стёкол.
Could we use не смотрим instead of не видим here?
No, because видеть means 'to see' (the physical ability or perception), while смотреть means 'to look' (an active process). Since the dirty windows are physically blocking our vision, we lack the ability to see (не видим) the street, even if we are trying to look at it.
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