Breakdown of Стоило пожарному получить вызов, как экипаж отправился на пожар.
на
on, at / by (transport) / to (a place) / to (in answer to)
получить
to receive (perfective)
отправиться
to depart
пожар
fire (destructive event)
как
than (in 'no sooner ... than')
стоить
one had only to (as soon as)
пожарный
firefighter
вызов
call
экипаж
crew
Questions & Answers about Стоило пожарному получить вызов, как экипаж отправился на пожар.
Why is the neuter verb стоило used here alongside the dative пожарному?
This is the core of the immediate trigger construction. The first clause is impersonal, meaning it has no grammatical subject. In past tense impersonal sentences, the verb always defaults to the neuter form стоило. The person performing the action (the firefighter) is placed in the dative case (пожарному) before the infinitive verb.
Does как mean "how" in this sentence?
Not here. In the fixed structure стоило ... как, the word как acts as a conjunction connecting the two events, similar to "when" or "than" in the English phrases "hardly ... when" or "no sooner had ... than". It signals that the second action (экипаж отправился) was triggered instantly by the first.
The word for firefighter is a noun, so why does пожарному have the adjectival ending -ому?
The word пожарный (firefighter) is a substantivized adjective. This means it functions entirely as a noun but still takes adjectival endings when it declines. Because the construction requires the dative case, it takes the standard masculine dative adjective ending -ому.
Why do we say на пожар using the accusative case instead of the prepositional case?
The verb отправился (set off / departed) implies motion towards a destination. When expressing movement directed toward an event (like a fire, a concert, or a meeting), Russian uses the preposition на followed by the accusative case. If the crew were already located at the fire, you would use the prepositional case (на пожаре).
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