Breakdown of Через час повар наготовит угощений самому важному гостю.
важный
important
час
hour
гость
guest
повар
cook
самый
most
через
in (after a period of time)
наготовить
to cook a lot of
угощение
treat
Questions & Answers about Через час повар наготовит угощений самому важному гостю.
Why is угощений in the genitive case rather than the accusative?
This showcases the accumulative action type being taught in this lesson. The prefix на- in наготовит means to produce a large quantity of something. Verbs with this specific meaning take their object in the genitive case (acting like a partitive) to indicate a large amount of that thing, so we use the genitive plural угощений instead of the accusative.
Does the prefix на- make наготовит a perfective verb?
Yes. Adding на- to the imperfective verb готовить creates the perfective verb наготовить (to prepare a lot of). Because Russian perfective verbs cannot have a present tense, its conjugated form automatically expresses the future tense, which is why it translates to "will prepare."
The translation says "for the most important guest." Why is there no preposition like для before самому важному гостю?
Russian often expresses the beneficiary of an action (who something is done for) simply by putting the recipient in the dative case, as seen here. You could also say для самого важного гостя (using для + the genitive case), and the meaning would be exactly the same.
Is час in the nominative case in the phrase через час?
It looks like the nominative, but it is actually the accusative case. The preposition через (when meaning "in" or "after" a certain amount of time) always requires the accusative. Because час is an inanimate masculine noun, its accusative form is identical to its nominative form.
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