Breakdown of Почему мальчик лезет в этот глубокий сугроб?
мальчик
boy
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
почему
why
в
in / to (direction)
Questions & Answers about Почему мальчик лезет в этот глубокий сугроб?
Why do we use лезет instead of лазит here?
лезет is the unidirectional verb of motion from the infinitive лезти. We use it here because the boy is actively making a single, specific movement into the snowdrift right now. If he were crawling around inside the snowdrift aimlessly, or if he habitually climbed into snowdrifts, we would use the multidirectional verb лазит (or лазает).
I usually translate лезти as 'to climb' up something. How does that work with a snowdrift?
While лезти is commonly used for climbing up things like trees or ladders, it also describes squeezing into tight spaces, plunging into something thick, or getting somewhere that requires awkward physical effort. Here, plunging or wading into a deep snowdrift perfectly captures that sense of effort.
Why is в этот глубокий сугроб in the accusative case, rather than the prepositional?
The preposition в takes the accusative case when it indicates the direction or destination of a movement (answering 'where to?'). If the boy were already inside the snowdrift and just moving around within it, we would use the prepositional case (в этом глубоком сугробе) alongside a multidirectional verb.
Since сугроб is in the accusative case, why didn't the endings for этот глубокий change?
сугроб (snowdrift) is a masculine inanimate noun. In Russian, masculine inanimate nouns and their modifying adjectives have accusative forms that are identical to their nominative forms. That is why the phrase looks exactly the same as its dictionary entry.