Breakdown of Врачи оказывают помощь всем больным.
врач
doctor
весь
all, the whole, everything, everyone
больной
the patient
оказывать помощь
to provide help, to render assistance
Questions & Answers about Врачи оказывают помощь всем больным.
Why use оказывают помощь instead of just saying помогают?
Оказывать помощь is a formal analytical predicate. While помогают (help) is perfect for everyday speech, оказывают помощь (render assistance) belongs to a formal or official register, like medical guidelines, news reports, or legal documents. Using these noun-verb pairs is a hallmark of formal Russian.
Does оказывать помощь take the same case for the recipient as the simple verb помогать?
Yes, it does! Both require the Dative case for the recipient of the help. That is why we see всем больным (to all the sick) in the Dative plural. The noun помощь itself is the direct object of оказывать, so it is in the Accusative case.
Why is the adjective больным acting as a noun here?
Больной is an adjective meaning "sick" or "ill," but it is very commonly used as a noun to mean "a patient" or "a sick person." In this sentence, всем больным literally means "to all sick [people]," which is the standard Russian way to refer to patients in a medical context.
Could I use a different verb, like давать помощь or делать помощь?
No, you must use оказывать (or its perfective form оказать). In Russian, formal noun-verb collocations are fixed. Оказывать is the specific "light verb" required for nouns like помощь (assistance), влияние (influence), and поддержка (support).