Word
Всякий сообразительный человек может выкручиваться, ему помогает смекалка.
Meaning
Every sort of quick-witted person can extricate themselves, ingenuity helps them.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Всякий сообразительный человек может выкручиваться, ему помогает смекалка.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
человек
person
помогать
to help
мочь
to be able to
Questions & Answers about Всякий сообразительный человек может выкручиваться, ему помогает смекалка.
Why use всякий here instead of любой?
Всякий is used for generalizations, meaning 'any typical' or 'every kind of.' Любой implies a free choice, like 'pick absolutely anyone, it doesn't matter who.' In this sentence, we aren't emphasizing a random choice; we are making a general rule about a specific type of person, so всякий feels more natural.
Why is the imperfective verb выкручиваться used with может instead of the perfective выкрутиться?
The imperfective is used because this is a general statement about a continuous or habitual ability. The sentence describes what quick-witted people are generally capable of doing across various situations, rather than a one-time successful escape.
In the second clause, why is the pronoun ему in the dative case?
In Russian, the verb помогать (to help) always takes the dative case for the person receiving the help. Also, notice the word order: смекалка is the nominative subject doing the action, so the clause literally translates as 'to him helps ingenuity.'
What exactly is смекалка and how does it relate to выкручиваться?