Breakdown of Нам нужно принимать решения, а не сдаваться.
не
not
а
and (contrastive)
нам
to us
нужно
it is necessary
решение
decision
принимать
to accept (impf) / to take (part in)
сдаваться
to give up (impf)
Questions & Answers about Нам нужно принимать решения, а не сдаваться.
The English translation says 'and not give up'. Why use the conjunction а instead of и?
While и means 'and', using the combination а не creates a strong contrast, meaning 'rather than' or 'and not'. It directly contrasts the desired action (принимать решения) with the wrong one (сдаваться). This is a very common coordinating structure, acting much like the double conjunctions you are currently studying to balance two ideas.
Why does the sentence start with нам (to us) instead of мы (we)?
In Russian, expressing need uses an impersonal structure. Literally, this translates to 'To us it is necessary...'. The logical subject (мы) takes the dative case (нам), followed by the word нужно and the infinitive verbs.
I learned that принимать means 'to take' or 'to accept'. How does it mean 'make' here?
In Russian, you do not 'make' a decision (using делать would be incorrect). Instead, you 'take' or 'accept' a decision. The fixed phrase is always принимать решение (to make a decision).
Both принимать and сдаваться are imperfective verbs. Why not use their perfective forms?
The sentence states a general principle or an ongoing rule for behavior ('we need to be making decisions in general'). If you were talking about one specific, immediate choice you had to make right now, you would use the perfective verb принять.
Why does сдаваться have the reflexive -ся ending here?
Without the ending, сдавать means 'to hand in' (like an assignment) or 'to take an exam'. Adding the -ся ending changes the meaning entirely to 'to surrender' or 'to give up', which is the action we are avoiding in this sentence.
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