Breakdown of Под ночь нам было страшно, потому что пациент закричал.
ночь
night
мы
we
потому что
because
быть
to be
страшно
scared / scary
пациент
patient
закричать
to shout (perfective)
под
towards / nearing (approaching a time or age)
Questions & Answers about Под ночь нам было страшно, потому что пациент закричал.
How does под mean "towards" here, and what case is ночь in?
When used with the Accusative case, the preposition под can mean "approaching" or "towards" a specific time or age. Here, ночь is a feminine noun ending in a soft sign, so its Accusative form is identical to its Nominative form.
Why does закричал translate to "started screaming" rather than just "screamed"?
The prefix за- added to verbs of sound or emotion often indicates the sudden beginning of an action. Because it is a perfective verb, закричал focuses on that exact moment the patient let out a cry or started screaming.
Why is it нам было страшно instead of мы были страшные?
Emotional and physical states in Russian are expressed using an impersonal construction where the experiencer is in the Dative case (нам). If you said мы были страшные, using the Nominative case and an adjective, it would mean "we were scary" or "we were terrifying" instead of "we were scared".
Why is the past tense verb было in the neuter form here?
In impersonal constructions like this one, there is no grammatical subject for the verb to agree with. When expressing these states in the past tense, Russian always defaults to the neuter form было.
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