Question 1

Why does the sentence use мне instead of я?

Accepted Answer

The verb удаваться (to succeed / to manage) is an impersonal verb. In Russian, you don't say "I manage to do it", but rather "It manages to get done to me." Because of this, the person succeeding must be in the dative case (мне), and the verb is fixed in the 3rd-person singular "it" form (удаётся).

Question 2

Why is удаётся imperfective, but the verb following it (закончить) perfective?

Accepted Answer

Удаётся is imperfective because the word Обычно (usually) shows this is a repeated, habitual routine. However, закончить (to finish) is perfective because on each of those individual days, the specific action of finishing the work is successfully completed to the end.

Question 3

Literally, половине первого means "to the half of the first". How does that translate to "half past twelve"?

Accepted Answer

When telling time on the half-hour, Russian looks ahead to the next hour. "Half past twelve" is viewed as halfway through the very first hour of the new 12-hour cycle (1:00). So, "half past twelve" is половина первого (half of the first hour), "half past one" is половина второго (half of the second hour), and so on.

Question 4

Why do we use the preposition к, and why is the word for "half" written as половине?

Accepted Answer

When referring to a time deadline, the preposition к translates to "by" a certain time. This preposition always requires the dative case, which is why the nominative noun половина changes its ending to become половине.

Обычно к половине первого мне удаётся закончить работу.

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