Breakdown of Он нарезал сыра и накупил салфеток.
и
and
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
сыр
cheese
накупить
to buy a lot of
нарезать
to slice a lot of
салфетка
napkin
Questions & Answers about Он нарезал сыра и накупил салфеток.
Why do we use the prefix на- in нарезал and накупил instead of just saying порезал and купил?
The prefix на- here adds the meaning of accumulation, showing that a large or sufficient quantity of something was produced or obtained. It changes the meaning from simply 'he sliced' and 'he bought' to 'he sliced a bunch of' and 'he bought a whole lot of'.
Why are сыра and салфеток in the Genitive case instead of the Accusative case?
When a verb uses this accumulative на- prefix, its direct object must take the Genitive case. You can think of it as an invisible quantity word like 'a lot of' standing right before the noun, which naturally triggers the Genitive.
Why is сыра in the Genitive singular but салфеток in the Genitive plural?
Сыр (cheese) is being treated as a mass or uncountable noun here, meaning 'a quantity of cheese', so it takes the Genitive singular. Салфетка (napkin) is a countable object, so to say he bought a lot of them, it must be in the Genitive plural.
Why does the Genitive plural form салфеток have an о inserted before the к?
The Nominative singular is салфетка. To form the Genitive plural, we drop the final -а. This leaves an awkward consonant cluster (-тк) at the end of the word. To make it easier to pronounce, Russian inserts a fleeting vowel (in this case, о) between the consonants.
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