Breakdown of У меня болят руки от тяжёлых тисков и плоскогубцев!
и
and
меня
me
у
at, by
от
from
рука
hand
тяжёлый
heavy
болеть
to hurt, to ache; to be ill
тиски
vise
плоскогубцы
pliers
Questions & Answers about У меня болят руки от тяжёлых тисков и плоскогубцев!
Why are тисков and плоскогубцев in the plural if I only used one vise and one pair of pliers?
Words for tools with two parts, like тиски (vise) and плоскогубцы (pliers), are plural-only nouns in Russian. They don't have a singular form, so they always decline using plural endings, regardless of how many you are holding.
Why do these words take the endings -ов and -ев in this sentence?
They are in the genitive case because they follow the preposition от (from). Plural-only nouns usually borrow their oblique case endings from standard masculine or feminine plurals. Here, they take the common masculine genitive plural endings, becoming тисков and плоскогубцев.
Wait, why does тисков get an -ов ending but плоскогубцев gets -ев?
This is because of a Russian spelling rule for nouns ending in -ц. When the genitive plural ending is stressed, you write -ов (like in the word отцов). When the ending is unstressed, like in плоскогубцы, you must use -ев, giving us плоскогубцев.
Why is the verb болят in the plural form here?
In the Russian structure for expressing pain (У меня болит/болят...), the body part is the grammatical subject, not you. Since руки (hands) is plural, the verb болеть (to ache) must be in the plural form болят.
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