Breakdown of Пациенту нужно выговориться, чтобы чувствовать себя лучше.
нужно
it is necessary
пациент
patient
чтобы
in order to
лучше
better
чувствовать себя
to feel (well, unwell)
выговориться
to unburden oneself
Questions & Answers about Пациенту нужно выговориться, чтобы чувствовать себя лучше.
How do the prefix вы- and postfix -ся change the meaning of the base verb говорить in выговориться?
The combination of вы- and -ся adds the idea of doing an action to the point of complete saturation or emotional relief. While говорить just means "to speak", выговориться means "to say everything you need to say to get it off your chest" or "to talk until you are satisfied."
Why is the subject пациенту in the dative case rather than the nominative?
Words expressing necessity, like нужно or надо, are impersonal in Russian. The person who needs to do the action is treated as the logical subject and must be put in the dative case. Literally, the structure works like "To the patient, it is necessary to speak out."
Why does чтобы take the infinitive чувствовать here instead of a past tense verb?
When the subject of the main clause (the patient) is the exact same person performing the action in the чтобы (in order to) clause, you must use the infinitive. If a different person wanted the patient to feel better, you would use a past tense verb instead (e.g., Врач хочет, чтобы пациент чувствовал себя лучше).
Why do we need the reflexive pronoun себя after чувствовать? Could we just say чувствовать лучше?
You must include себя! In Russian, чувствовать on its own is a transitive verb meaning to physically or emotionally sense something else (like feeling pain or feeling the wind). To talk about your own overall state of health or mood ("I feel good", "the patient feels better"), you always have to use чувствовать себя.
Learn Пациенту нужно выговориться, чтобы чувствовать себя лучше and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free