Breakdown of Герой смог преодолеть этот трудный жизненный путь.
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
трудный
difficult
герой
hero
смочь
to manage to, to be able to (perfective)
путь
track / path (route, journey)
преодолеть
to overcome
жизненный
life's, vital
Questions & Answers about Герой смог преодолеть этот трудный жизненный путь.
Why doesn't the anomalous noun путь change its ending here?
Because it is the direct object of the verb преодолеть, it is in the accusative case. Even though путь has very strange endings in other cases, it is an inanimate masculine noun. For inanimate masculine nouns, the accusative form is identical to the nominative form. So, путь stays exactly the same!
Since путь ends in a soft sign, how can we easily tell it is masculine in this sentence?
The words attached to it give it away! The demonstrative pronoun этот and the adjectives трудный and жизненный are all in their masculine forms. If путь were feminine, these would be эту трудную жизненную.
Why use the perfective verb смог instead of the imperfective мог?
Смог shows that the hero didn't just have the general ability to overcome the path, but that he actually managed to do it successfully. It highlights a completed, one-time result rather than an ongoing capability.
How is the word жизненный formed?
It is formed from the feminine noun жизнь (life). By adding the suffix -енн-, which is very commonly used to turn nouns into adjectives, we get жизненный (meaning 'relating to life' or 'life's'). Notice that it is spelled with a double н.
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