Questions & Answers about Не с кем советоваться, когда пчёлы жалят.
Why is the preposition "с" placed in the middle to make "не с кем"?
When negative pronouns like некого (nobody) or нечего (nothing) are used with a preposition, the preposition always jumps right into the middle, splitting the word into three separate parts. Since the verb советоваться (to consult) requires the preposition с plus the Instrumental case, the base form некем splits to become не с кем.
How is "не с кем" pronounced, and why does the stress matter here?
The stress in не с кем falls firmly on the particle не. This is a strict rule: predicative negative pronouns starting with не- (meaning there is no one or nothing to do an action) always take the stress on не. If you were saying "I am not consulting with anybody," you would use the unstressed ни, making it ни с кем не советуюсь, which requires an additional negated verb.
Why is "советоваться" in the infinitive, and who is doing the action?
The first clause is an impersonal construction. Phrases built with некого, нечего, or their split prepositional forms like не с кем act as the core of the sentence and are always followed by an infinitive. There is no grammatical subject in the Nominative case here; it simply expresses a general state that there is no one available to consult with.
The verb "жалят" looks a bit like "жалеют". Are these verbs related?