Word
Он нарезал сыра и накупил салфеток.
Meaning
He sliced a lot of cheese and bought a lot of napkins.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
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
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?