Word
Кататься на роликах по плохому асфальту не только тяжело, но и опасно.
Meaning
Roller skating on bad asphalt is not only hard, but also dangerous.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Кататься на роликах по плохому асфальту не только тяжело, но и опасно.
плохой
bad
на
on, at / by (transport) / to (a place) / to (in answer to)
опасный
dangerous
по
along, around
Questions & Answers about Кататься на роликах по плохому асфальту не только тяжело, но и опасно.
Why is the reflexive кататься used here instead of the transitive катать?
Катать means to roll or give a ride to something or someone else, like pushing a friend in a wheelchair or rolling a ball. When you are riding or rolling for your own pleasure, such as roller skating, cycling, or sledding, you must use the reflexive кататься, which essentially means you are 'rolling yourself'.
Could we use the unidirectional reflexive verb катиться here instead?
No, because катиться describes a single, continuous movement in one straight direction, like a ball rolling down a hill. Since this sentence talks about roller skating as a general hobby or activity, which involves moving around in various directions for fun, you must use the multidirectional кататься.
Why do we say по плохому асфальту (dative) rather than на плохом асфальте (prepositional) for 'on bad asphalt'?
Russian uses по + dative case to describe movement along, across, or over a surface. Because roller skating involves moving along a stretch of asphalt rather than just standing stationary on top of it, по + dative is the required structure.
Why are the words for 'hard' and 'dangerous' (тяжело, опасно) in their adverbial/neuter forms?
When the subject of a sentence is an infinitive verb (in this case, кататься), any words describing the state or quality of that action must be predicative adverbs, which look identical to short neuter adjectives. You cannot use standard masculine or feminine adjectives here because there is no noun for them to agree with.