Breakdown of Нам с трудом удалось выиграть турнир.
нам
to us
с
with (also со)
удаться
to manage / to succeed (perfective)
выиграть
to win
Questions & Answers about Нам с трудом удалось выиграть турнир.
Why do we use the dative нам instead of the nominative мы?
The verb удаться (to manage/succeed) is an impersonal verb. In Russian, you don't actively 'do' the succeeding; rather, the success 'happens to' you. Therefore, the person who succeeds must be in the dative case (нам) rather than the nominative (мы).
Since there is no 'it' in the English translation, why does the verb end in the neuter -ось (удалось)?
Because this is an impersonal sentence with a dative logical subject (нам) and an infinitive (выиграть), there is no grammatical nominative subject. Whenever a past-tense verb has no nominative subject, it automatically defaults to the neuter singular form, which is why we use удалось.
What case is трудом in the phrase с трудом?
It is in the instrumental case. The noun труд means labor or effort. By combining the preposition с (with) and the instrumental case, we get с трудом, which is a set phrase that translates to 'with difficulty' or 'with effort.'
Could we use the imperfective verb выигрывать here instead of выиграть?
It would sound very unnatural here. We use the perfective выиграть because it refers to a single, successfully completed result (winning the tournament). The past-tense verb удалось is itself perfective and almost always pairs with a perfective infinitive to emphasize a specific, one-time achievement.