Breakdown of Вместо того чтобы строить традиционные электростанции, город купил новые генераторы.
город
city
новый
new
строить
to build
купить
to buy (perfective)
тот
that
чтобы
in order to
вместо
instead of
электростанция
power plant
традиционный
traditional
генератор
generator
Questions & Answers about Вместо того чтобы строить традиционные электростанции, город купил новые генераторы.
Why is an infinitive (строить) used after вместо того чтобы?
You use the infinitive because the subject performing both actions is the same: the city (город) is the one doing both the buying and the rejected building. If a different subject were doing the building, you would use a conjugated past tense verb after чтобы.
Could we use the perfective verb построить here instead of the imperfective строить?
Yes, but it changes the nuance. Using the imperfective строить rejects the general idea or ongoing process of building traditional power plants. Using the perfective построить would focus on rejecting the completion of a specific, single building project.
Why isn't there a comma before чтобы in the phrase вместо того чтобы?
When a compound conjunction like вместо того чтобы starts a sentence, it is usually kept together as a single unit without an internal comma. The only comma is placed at the end of the entire subordinate clause, right before the main clause begins (город купил...).
Why do электростанции and генераторы look like they are in the nominative case when they are the direct objects being built and bought?
They are actually in the accusative case! Because both электростанция and генератор refer to inanimate objects, their plural accusative forms are identical to their plural nominative forms. If they were animate, you would see the genitive endings instead.
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