Breakdown of Студенты нагулялись по парку и насмотрелись на памятники.
и
and
парк
park
студент
student (m)
на
on, at / by (transport) / to (a place) / to (in answer to)
памятник
monument
по
along, around
нагуляться
to walk to one's heart's content
насмотреться
to look at one's fill
Questions & Answers about Студенты нагулялись по парку и насмотрелись на памятники.
What exactly do the prefix на- and postfix -ся add to the base verbs in this sentence?
They turn the base verbs into perfective verbs that express satiation. By wrapping a verb in на- and -ся, it shows that the subject did the action until they were completely satisfied or had enough of it. In this sentence, the students walked and looked as much as they possibly wanted to.
Why do we use на памятники here instead of the Genitive case, which is often used with these satiation verbs?
You are right that на- ... -ся verbs often take an object in the Genitive case without a preposition, such as насмотреться фильмов for having watched plenty of movies. However, because the action here is physically pointing your eyes at objects rather than watching a show, it keeps the preposition на plus the Accusative case, exactly like the standard base verb phrase смотреть на.
Why is the Dative case used in по парку?
The preposition по takes the Dative case when describing motion that happens erratically or broadly along, across, or around an area. Here, it emphasizes that their walking was scattered all around the park rather than heading toward a single specific destination.
Can I use an imperfective version of нагулялись and насмотрелись if the students were in the middle of getting their fill?
In everyday speech, no. This satiation pattern is almost exclusively perfective. While imperfective forms technically exist in the dictionary, native speakers rarely use them because the core purpose of this structure is to emphasize the completed result of having had enough of an activity.
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