Breakdown of Отдай мне мой словарь.
словарь
dictionary
мой
my / mine
мне
to me
отдать
to give back (perfective) / to hand over, present
Questions & Answers about Отдай мне мой словарь.
Wait, shouldn't the command be отдавай? Why is it отдай?
Отдай is the imperative (command) form of the perfective verb отдать (to give back). The verbs you are learning in this lesson, like отдавать, are imperfective. While отдавать drops the -ва- in the present tense (becoming я отдаю), it actually keeps it in the imperative (отдавай). The speaker uses the perfective отдай here because they want the action completed successfully as a single result.
Why do we use мне here instead of меня?
Verbs involving giving, returning, or showing something to someone require the dative case for the recipient. Мне is the dative form of я, literally meaning to me. If you used the accusative form меня, it would mean you are the object being given away!
Why doesn't the ending of словарь change since it is the direct object?
Словарь is a masculine noun ending in a soft sign (-ь). Because it is an inanimate object (not a living person or animal), its accusative case form—which is used for direct objects—is exactly the same as its dictionary (nominative) form.
Is мой in the nominative or accusative case in this sentence?
It is in the accusative case, but it looks identical to the nominative. Possessive pronouns like мой must match the gender, number, and case of the noun they describe. Because словарь is a masculine inanimate noun in the accusative case, мой also takes its masculine inanimate accusative form, which does not change from the dictionary form.