Breakdown of Мальчик так растерялся, что не мог скрыть свои слёзы.
не
not
мальчик
boy
что
that (conjunction)
мочь
to be able to
Questions & Answers about Мальчик так растерялся, что не мог скрыть свои слёзы.
Why do we use так here instead of такой for "so"?
Why does the sentence use свои instead of его for "his"?
In Russian, when the object belongs to the subject of the sentence (the boy), you must use the reflexive possessive pronoun свой (in this case, свои to match the plural слёзы). If you used его слёзы, it would sound like he was trying to hide another boy's tears!
What is the literal meaning of растерялся?
The base verb is растерять, which means "to lose" (like dropping or misplacing things). By adding the reflexive ending -ся, it literally means "to lose oneself." In Russian, this is the natural way to express that someone "got confused," "panicked," or "was at a loss."
Why is растерялся perfective, while не мог is imperfective?