Breakdown of Мы идём в горы, нам нужна длинная верёвка.
мы
we
в
in / to (direction)
идти
to go (on foot) / to proceed, go (of a process)
нам
to us
длинный
long
нужен
needed (нужен, нужна, нужны)
гора
mountain
верёвка
rope
Questions & Answers about Мы идём в горы, нам нужна длинная верёвка.
Why is it нужна and not нужен or нужно?
The short adjective нужен changes its ending to match the gender and number of the thing that is needed, which acts as the grammatical subject. Here, the needed item is верёвка (rope), a feminine noun. Therefore, we use the feminine form нужна.
Why does "we need" translate to нам нужна instead of using мы?
Expressing need with нужен requires a different sentence structure than English. The person who needs something is put in the Dative case (нам means "to us"), and the thing needed is in the Nominative case (верёвка). Literally, the phrase means "To us is necessary a long rope."
Why use идём instead of ходим here?
Идём is a unidirectional verb of motion, describing a specific trip happening right now in one direction ("we are going"). If you were talking about a recurring habit, like "we go to the mountains every summer", you would use the multidirectional verb ходим.
Why is it в горы and what case is this?
It is in the Accusative case. When talking about motion towards a destination, the preposition в takes the Accusative case. Горы is the plural Accusative form of гора (mountain).
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