Breakdown of Он сказал всем заткнуться.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
сказать
to tell, to say
весь
all, the whole, everything, everyone
заткнуться
to shut up (rude, perfective)
Questions & Answers about Он сказал всем заткнуться.
Why do we use сказал here instead of a word for 'ordered' or 'commanded'?
In Russian, сказать (to say/tell) is very commonly used with an infinitive to express an everyday command or instruction, just like 'told someone to do something' in English. While you could use verbs like велеть (to order/tell) or приказать (to order), сказать is the most natural choice here.
Why is 'everyone' translated as всем (dative) instead of всех (accusative)?
The verb сказать requires the dative case for the person being spoken to, because they are the recipient of the words. Even though English says 'he told everyone', the Russian construction literally translates to 'he said to everyone to shut up.'
Is заткнуться a rude word?
Why is the perfective verb заткнуться used here instead of an imperfective equivalent?
When giving or reporting a specific, one-time command that expects a concrete result, Russian typically uses the perfective aspect. The speaker wants the single, completed action of everyone closing their mouths right now.
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