Breakdown of Пациенту под шестьдесят, и он очень плохо спит.
и
and
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
очень
very
плохо
badly
Questions & Answers about Пациенту под шестьдесят, и он очень плохо спит.
Why is пациенту in the Dative case?
In Russian, when stating someone's age, the person is placed in the Dative case. This fundamental rule still applies even when we use an approximation phrase like под шестьдесят instead of an exact number.
How does the preposition под mean 'nearing'? Doesn't it usually mean 'under'?
While под frequently means 'under', when it is used with the Accusative case to talk about age or time, it means 'approaching' or 'getting close to'. So под шестьдесят means the patient is in their late fifties, almost sixty.
If под takes the Accusative case here, why does шестьдесят look like the Nominative form?
For numbers ending in -десят (like 50, 60, 70, 80), the Accusative form is identical to the Nominative form. Therefore, шестьдесят is grammatically in the Accusative case here, exactly as the preposition под requires for this meaning.
Could I say около шестидесяти instead? What is the difference?
Около шестидесяти means 'around sixty' and could refer to an age slightly before or slightly after (like 59 or 61). Под шестьдесят strictly means 'approaching sixty' from below (like 58 or 59), emphasizing that the person has not yet reached that milestone.