Breakdown of Инженер зашёл в кабинет не только за инструкцией, но и за ноутбуком.
в
in / to (direction)
кабинет
office (private room, study)
инженер
engineer
ноутбук
laptop
зайти
to drop in / stop by (pf, on foot)
не только ..., но и
not only ... but also
за
for (to fetch, go get)
инструкция
manual
Questions & Answers about Инженер зашёл в кабинет не только за инструкцией, но и за ноутбуком.
Why do we use за + Instrumental (за инструкцией) here instead of для to mean 'for'?
When you go somewhere with the specific goal of getting, fetching, or picking something up, Russian uses за + the Instrumental case. If you used для here, it would sound like the engineer went into the office for the benefit of the manual, rather than to retrieve it.
Is there a special connection between the verb зашёл and the preposition за in this sentence?
Yes! While they have separate grammar rules, they pair together perfectly. The verb зайти (where зашёл comes from) means to make a short visit or 'drop by.' When paired with за + Instrumental, зайти за becomes the standard conversational way to say 'to drop by to pick [something] up.'
Why is кабинет in the Accusative case if the rest of the objects are Instrumental?
The case is determined by the preposition directly in front of the noun. The preposition в + Accusative shows the destination of the motion (в кабинет = into the office), whereas за + Instrumental shows the purpose of the trip (fetching the items).
Notice how за is repeated: не только за... но и за.... Is repeating the preposition required?
Yes, this is an important rule in Russian. When using paired conjunctions like не только... но и... (not only... but also...), you must repeat the preposition before the second item. You cannot drop it like we sometimes do in English; saying не только за инструкцией, но и ноутбуком would sound grammatically incorrect.
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