Breakdown of Нам хватит смелости отдать все средства.
мы
we
весь
all, the whole, everything, everyone
хватить
to be enough, to suffice
отдать
to give back (perfective) / to hand over, present
средство
the means / the fund
смелость
the courage
Questions & Answers about Нам хватит смелости отдать все средства.
Why does the Russian sentence say нам хватит смелости instead of using a verb for 'we will have'?
In Russian, 'having enough' or 'lacking' something is often expressed with the impersonal verb хватать (imperfective) or хватить (perfective). The person who has enough is put in the Dative case (нам), and the verb is in the 3rd person singular (acting like an 'it'). Literally, this phrase means 'To us, it will suffice...'
Why is the word for courage in the Genitive case (смелости)?
The verb хватить (to be enough / to suffice) requires the thing you have enough of to be in the Genitive case. You can think of it as answering the quantity question 'enough of what?'. That's why the feminine noun смелость changes to its Genitive form, смелости.
Is хватит in the present or future tense?
It is in the future tense. Хватить is a perfective verb. When you conjugate a perfective verb using present-tense endings, it automatically refers to a completed action in the future. Because the sentence uses an impersonal structure, it takes the 3rd person singular ending (-ит) to mean 'it will be enough'.
The word средства translates to 'funds' here, but doesn't it usually mean 'means'?
Yes, средство broadly translates to 'means', 'method', or 'remedy'. However, in the plural (средства), it is very commonly used to refer specifically to financial resources or 'funds'. In this sentence, it is in the Accusative plural because it is the direct object of отдать (to give away).
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