Breakdown of Я спросил у менеджера, зависит ли моя зарплата от этого проекта.
я
I
мой
my / mine
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
у
at, by
проект
the project
спросить
to ask (perfective)
менеджер
manager
от
from
зарплата
salary
ли
whether / if (in indirect questions)
зависеть
to depend
Questions & Answers about Я спросил у менеджера, зависит ли моя зарплата от этого проекта.
Why does ли come right after the verb зависит instead of at the beginning of the clause like the English word 'whether'?
The particle ли always comes immediately after the word that is the focus of the question. In yes/no questions like this, the focus is usually the action itself, so the verb is moved to the front of the clause and ли attaches right to it.
The main verb спросил is in the past tense, so why is зависит in the present tense?
In Russian, indirect questions keep the exact same tense that was used in the original direct question. Since the direct question was 'Does my salary depend on this project?' (present tense), you must use the present tense зависит in the indirect question too.
Why do we use у менеджера here instead of just the accusative case менеджера?
To express asking someone a question, Russian often uses the verb спросить followed by the preposition у and the genitive case. You can also just use the accusative case (спросил менеджера), but using у is very common when asking for information.
Why is этого проекта in the genitive case?
The verb зависеть (to depend) always requires the preposition от followed by the genitive case. While we say depend 'on' in English, Russian grammar requires depending 'from' (от).
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