Breakdown of Спасибо за правду. Тебе хватило смелости всё сказать.
ты
you (singular)
сказать
to tell, to say
правда
truth
спасибо
thank you
весь
all, the whole, everything, everyone (весь, вся, всё, все)
хватить
to be enough, to suffice
за
for (in exchange for)
смелость
the courage
Questions & Answers about Спасибо за правду. Тебе хватило смелости всё сказать.
Why is the verb хватило in the neuter past tense if the sentence is about "you" having courage?
This is an impersonal construction. There is no nominative subject here. The person experiencing the sufficiency is in the dative case (тебе) and the thing they have enough of is in the genitive case (смелости). Without a grammatical subject, the past tense verb defaults to the neuter singular form (хватило).
Why is it смелости instead of смелость?
The verb хватить (to be enough / to suffice) requires the thing you have enough of to be in the genitive case. Смелость (courage) is a feminine noun ending in a soft sign, so its genitive form ends in -и.
Why are both verbs (хватило, сказать) perfective here?
The speaker is focusing on a single, successful result. The person successfully mustered enough courage on this specific occasion (хватило, the perfective of хватать), and the action they completed was stating the whole truth (сказать, the perfective of говорить).
Is there a reason всё comes before сказать instead of after?
Yes, in Russian, the pronoun всё (everything) very often immediately precedes the verb it is acting as the object for. While сказать всё is grammatically acceptable, всё сказать sounds much more natural and idiomatic.
A quick review: why do we say за правду in the first sentence?
When thanking someone for a specific action or thing, the word спасибо is followed by the preposition за plus the accusative case. Here, the feminine noun правда changes to правду.
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