Breakdown of Наконец врачу удалось спасти пациента.
врач
doctor
наконец
finally
пациент
patient
спасти
to save (perfective)
удаться
to manage / to succeed (perfective)
Questions & Answers about Наконец врачу удалось спасти пациента.
Why is the doctor in the Dative case (врачу)?
In Russian, the verb удаться (to manage/succeed) is used in an impersonal construction. The person who succeeds acts as the indirect object, taking the Dative case. You can think of it literally as "success happened to the doctor."
If врач is masculine, why does the verb удалось have a neuter ending?
Because this is an impersonal sentence, врачу is not the grammatical subject. When a past-tense verb has no Nominative subject, it defaults to the neuter singular form. Here, the neuter ending -о combines with the reflexive particle to make -ось.
Why use the perfective infinitive спасти instead of the imperfective спасать?
The action was a single, successfully completed event. The doctor didn't just spend time trying to save the patient (which would use the imperfective спасать); they actually achieved the final result of saving them.
The word пациента looks like it is in the Genitive case. Why?
It is actually in the Accusative case, serving as the direct object of спасти (to save). Because пациент is an animate masculine noun (a living being), its Accusative form is identical to its Genitive form, ending in -а.
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