Breakdown of Со второй попытки её брату удалось сдать экзамен.
брат
brother
она
she / it (for a feminine noun)
экзамен
exam
второй
second
сдать
to pass (an exam)
с
off / down from (a surface)
удаться
to manage / to succeed (perfective)
попытка
attempt
Questions & Answers about Со второй попытки её брату удалось сдать экзамен.
Why is the verb удалось in the neuter form if the brother (брату) is masculine?
Удаваться / удаться acts as an impersonal verb here. It doesn't agree with the person doing the action. Instead, the logical subject goes in the dative case (брату), and the verb takes the default neuter singular form (удалось in the past tense) when followed by an infinitive like сдать.
Why does it say со второй instead of just с второй?
The preposition с changes to со to make pronunciation easier before words starting with certain double consonants, especially if the first consonant is в or ф. Since второй starts with вт, saying с второй would be a tongue-twister!
Doesn't сдавать экзамен mean 'to take an exam'? Why is it translated as 'to pass'?
This is a tricky difference in Russian verb aspects! The imperfective verb сдавать focuses on the process, meaning 'to take an exam'. The perfective verb сдать, used here, focuses on the result, meaning 'to pass an exam'. Because he succeeded, we use the perfective сдать.
Why are the words for 'second attempt' in the genitive case (второй попытки)?
The preposition с (or со) requires the genitive case when used to mean 'from' or, like in this set phrase, 'on' a specific attempt. The nominative phrase вторая попытка changes to the genitive второй попытки.
Learn Со второй попытки её брату удалось сдать экзамен and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free