Breakdown of Почему ты в такой апатии?
ты
you (singular)
почему
why
в
in / to (direction)
такой
such / so / what ... is
апатия
apathy
Questions & Answers about Почему ты в такой апатии?
Why do we use в + Prepositional here to describe a feeling?
In Russian, deep emotional or psychological states are often treated as metaphorical places you are "inside" of. Just like being in a room, you use в + Prepositional to show you are fully immersed in that state, such as в шоке (in shock) or в апатии (in apathy).
I thought feminine nouns take -е in the prepositional case. Why does апатия become апатии?
You are right that most feminine nouns take -е, but nouns ending in -ия (like апатия, история, or Россия) are an exception. In the prepositional case, their ending changes to -ии.
Why does the word for "such" look like the masculine nominative такой here?
It is actually the feminine prepositional form! The nominative feminine is такая, and it changes to такой in the prepositional case to agree with апатии. It just happens to be spelled exactly like the masculine nominative dictionary form.
Why don't we use the dative case here, like мне грустно (I am sad)?
Words like грустно or скучно are adverbs used with the dative case for passing moods or physical sensations. However, complex psychological states or clinical moods like апатия, депрессия, or шок are nouns. Therefore, they use the в + Prepositional "container" structure instead.
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