Breakdown of Медитация не может продолжаться без расслабления и концентрации.
и
and
не
not
мочь
to be able to
без
without
продолжаться
to continue, to go on
расслабление
relaxation
медитация
meditation
концентрация
concentration
Questions & Answers about Медитация не может продолжаться без расслабления и концентрации.
How do the verbal nouns расслабления and концентрации make this sentence more compressed?
They replace a full subordinate clause. Instead of using verbs to say something like 'if you do not relax and concentrate' (если вы не расслабляетесь и не концентрируетесь), we use the preposition без plus the verbal nouns (отглагольные существительные). This syntactic compression makes the sentence more concise and is very common in B2-level Russian.
Why do we see the endings -ия and -ии on the two verbal nouns?
Both nouns are in the genitive case because they follow the preposition без (without). Расслабление (a neuter noun) changes its final -е to -я, becoming расслабления. Концентрация (a feminine noun ending in -ия) takes the special genitive ending -ии. The single preposition без governs both nouns since they are joined by и.
How can I easily recognize that расслабление is a verbal noun?
Why is the reflexive verb продолжаться used here instead of just продолжать?
Продолжать is a transitive verb, meaning it requires a direct object (for example, a person continuing a task). In this sentence, the meditation isn't continuing something else; it is the subject that is actively ongoing. When an action just 'goes on' or 'lasts' without a direct object, Russian uses the reflexive form продолжаться.
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