Breakdown of Твои письма меня очень радуют.
твой
your [informal]
письмо
letter
очень
very
меня
me
радовать
to make happy, to please
Questions & Answers about Твои письма меня очень радуют.
The lesson is about the reflexive verb радоваться, so why does this sentence use радуют without the -ся?
The verb радовать (without the -ся) is a transitive verb meaning to make someone happy. In this sentence, the letters are the subject doing the action to you. If you added -ся here, it would mean the letters themselves are experiencing joy!
Why does this sentence use the Accusative меня instead of the Dative мне, since the lesson says these emotion verbs take the Dative?
The rule about using the Dative case only applies to the reflexive verb радоваться (when you are happy about something). Because this sentence uses the non-reflexive радовать, it needs a direct object in the Accusative case to show who is being made happy, which is меня.
How would I rewrite this sentence to use the reflexive verb радоваться like we learned in the lesson?
You would need to flip the sentence around so that "I" is the subject and "your letters" becomes the cause of the joy in the Dative case. It would become: Я очень радуюсь твоим письмам. (I am very happy about your letters).
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