Breakdown of Я должен убедить капитана, что это опасный скалистый берег.
это
this / it is
я
I
что
that (conjunction)
должен
must, have to
опасный
dangerous
берег
shore, bank
убедить
to convince (perfective)
капитан
captain
скалистый
rocky
Questions & Answers about Я должен убедить капитана, что это опасный скалистый берег.
Why is the infinitive убедить used here rather than a future tense form like "I will convince"?
The verb убедить (to convince) is a defective verb, meaning it completely lacks a first-person singular form in the future tense. There is no single Russian word for "I will convince". To express this idea, you must pair the infinitive with a helper word, just like we did here with должен убедить (must convince). Other common workarounds include смогу убедить (I will be able to convince) or постараюсь убедить (I will try to convince).
Why does капитана take an -а ending?
The verb убедить requires a direct object in the accusative case. Because капитан (captain) is an animate masculine noun, its accusative form matches its genitive form, taking the -а ending.
Could we use уговорить instead of убедить in this context?
Probably not. Убедить means to convince someone of a fact or truth, like making the captain believe the shore is dangerous. Уговорить, on the other hand, means to persuade someone to take an action, like changing the ship's course. Since the goal here is to establish a fact, убедить is the correct choice.
Why do we use the neuter pronoun это when берег (shore) is a masculine noun?
When you use "this is" or "it is" to identify something, you use the unchanging neuter pronoun это as a universal pointer. You do not match it to the gender of the noun. The noun phrase that follows, опасный скалистый берег, simply stays in the nominative case.
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