Breakdown of Можно примерить платье в ателье? Вот булавка, сделайте его покороче.
оно
it
платье
dress
в
in / to (direction)
сделать
to do (perfective) / to make (perfective)
короткий
short
можно
one may, it is allowed
вот
here is, there is
ателье
tailor shop
примерить
to try on (perfective)
булавка
pin
Questions & Answers about Можно примерить платье в ателье? Вот булавка, сделайте его покороче.
How does the prefix по- change the meaning of короче in this sentence?
The word короче is the comparative form of короткий (short). Adding the prefix по- to a comparative softens it, giving it the meaning of doing something just a little bit. So, покороче means a little shorter. This is very common in polite requests to make them sound less demanding.
Why is the perfective verb примерить used after можно instead of the imperfective мерить?
While можно is often followed by an imperfective verb to ask for general permission, Russian uses the perfective aspect when asking to perform a single, specific action with a desired result. Here, the speaker is asking to try on one specific dress right now, not asking about the general rules of the shop.
Why doesn't the ending of ателье change after the preposition в, which usually requires the prepositional case?
The word ателье is a loanword from French. In Russian, most borrowed nouns that end in vowels like -е, -о, -и, or -у are indeclinable. This means their endings never change to match the case. Even though it is grammatically in the prepositional case here, the form remains ателье.
In the phrase сделайте его, why do we use его to refer to the dress?
The pronoun его refers back to платье (dress). Because платье is a neuter noun, its base pronoun is оно. When it becomes the direct object of the action сделайте (make), it must be in the accusative case. The accusative form of оно is его.
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