Breakdown of Она сама находилась в глубоком отчаянии.
она
she / it (for a feminine noun)
в
in / to (direction)
глубокий
deep
находиться
to be located
сам
oneself (сам, сама, само, сами)
отчаяние
despair
Questions & Answers about Она сама находилась в глубоком отчаянии.
Why do we use the prepositional case (в глубоком отчаянии) for an emotion here?
In Russian, abstract emotional or metaphorical states are often treated like physical locations. Just as you would say you are physically 'in a room' using в + prepositional case, you use the exact same structure to say you are 'in despair'.
Why does отчаянии end in -ии instead of the standard prepositional ending -е?
The dictionary form of the word is отчаяние. Neuter nouns ending in -ие (along with feminine nouns in -ия and masculine nouns in -ий) follow a special declension rule: in the prepositional case, their ending changes to -ии rather than the usual -е.
Why use the verb находилась instead of just была?
Why do we use сама for 'herself' instead of себя?
In English, 'herself' does double duty. It can be a reflexive object (she hurt herself), which uses себя. But here, it is emphatic (she, herself, was in despair), which uses сама. Because it modifies the subject она, it takes the nominative case.
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