Breakdown of Пассажир отдавил ей ногу в метро.
в
in / to (direction)
метро
subway
ей
to her
пассажир
passenger
нога
leg, foot
отдавить
to step on (and hurt someone's foot/toe)
Questions & Answers about Пассажир отдавил ей ногу в метро.
Why use the Dative ей instead of the possessive её for 'her foot'?
This is a classic example of the Dative of detriment or inalienable possession. Rather than saying 'crushed her foot' (отдавил её ногу), Russian expresses this as 'crushed the foot to her'. The Dative ей highlights that she is the one who experienced the negative impact of the action.
Would it be grammatically wrong to say отдавил её ногу?
It wouldn't be strictly ungrammatical, but it would sound very unnatural to a native speaker. When an action directly affects someone's body parts, clothing, or personal space, Russian strongly prefers using the Dative for the person affected and the Accusative for the object (ногу).
What exactly does the verb отдавил mean here?
It comes from давить (to press or squeeze). With the prefix от-, which often denotes severing or damaging, it implies pressing something so hard it's practically ruined. In everyday speech, отдавить ногу is simply the standard idiom for stepping on someone's foot really hard.
As a quick refresher, why doesn't метро change its ending for the Prepositional case?
Метро is a borrowed foreign noun ending in -о. Like кино (cinema) and пальто (coat), it is indeclinable, meaning its form remains exactly the same across all six grammatical cases.
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