Breakdown of Машины еле ползут из-за сильного дождя.
дождь
rain
машина
car
сильный
strong
из-за
because of; from behind
ползти
to crawl
еле
barely
Questions & Answers about Машины еле ползут из-за сильного дождя.
Why do we use the unidirectional verb ползут here instead of the multidirectional ползают?
Even though the cars are moving very slowly and might be in stop-and-go traffic, they are all traveling in a single, specific direction along the road. The unidirectional verb ползти emphasizes this direct, albeit slow, forward progress. If you used ползают, it would sound like the cars are crawling around randomly in all different directions like bugs.
Is it normal in Russian to use a verb for physical crawling to describe vehicles?
Yes, absolutely! Just like the English expression "traffic is crawling," using ползти for vehicles is a very common and natural metaphor in Russian to describe extremely slow speeds or terrible traffic jams.
Why use the preposition из-за for "because of" here? Could I use от or благодаря?
из-за is the standard preposition for external reasons that cause an obstacle, delay, or a negative outcome. Since the heavy rain is an external factor ruining the traffic flow, из-за (followed by the genitive case сильного дождя) is the perfect choice. You wouldn't use благодаря, which means "thanks to" and is reserved for positive outcomes, and от is usually for internal physical or emotional states, like shaking from cold.
Could I use почти не instead of еле to express "barely"?
They have slightly different focuses. You could say машины почти не едут (the cars are almost not moving at all), but еле focuses on the intense struggle and slowness of the action. It pairs perfectly with ползут. To emphasize the slowness even more, Russians often double this word and say еле-еле.
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