Question 1

Why is нужен used here instead of нужно or надо?

Accepted Answer

In Russian, when you need a physical object (like a passport), you use the short adjective нужен (meaning "is needed"). It must agree in gender and number with the thing that is needed, which acts as the grammatical subject. Since паспорт is a masculine noun in the nominative case, we use the masculine form нужен (literally: "a passport is needed"). You generally use нужно or надо when you need to perform an action (followed by a verb).

Question 2

The English translation says "you need", but there is no word for "you" in the Russian sentence. How does that work?

Accepted Answer

This sentence is a general statement, meaning "for anyone to open an account, a passport is needed." Because it applies to people in general, Russian just leaves out the pronoun. If you wanted to specify that you (specifically) need a passport, you would add the dative pronoun вам (to you) or тебе to the main clause: Чтобы открыть счёт, вам нужен паспорт.

Question 3

Why do we use the perfective verb открыть instead of the imperfective открывать?

Accepted Answer

We use the perfective открыть because opening a bank account here is viewed as a single, completed action with a concrete result. You do it once to establish the account. If you were talking about the regular, repeating process of opening accounts, you would use the imperfective открывать.

Question 4

Could I use для instead of чтобы to mean "in order to"?

Accepted Answer

Not directly with a verb. Для means "for" but it is a preposition that must be followed by a noun in the genitive case (for example, для работы - "for work"). When you want to say "in order to do an action", you must use the conjunction чтобы followed by an infinitive verb, as in чтобы открыть.

Чтобы открыть счёт, нужен паспорт.

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