Question 1

Why does the verb попросил take the Genitive case прощения here instead of the Accusative прощение?

Accepted Answer

Verbs of asking, wanting, and waiting (like попросить, хотеть, ждать) often take the Genitive case rather than the Accusative when the object is an abstract concept, like forgiveness. If he were asking for a specific, tangible object, you would use the Accusative (for example, он попросил книгу to mean "he asked for a book").

Question 2

To say he asked "his sister", why do we use у сестры instead of the Dative case (сестре)?

Accepted Answer

In English, you apologize to someone, but in Russian, when you use попросить (to request or ask for), you ask for something from someone. This requires the preposition у followed by the Genitive case. So, the literal structure is "He asked for forgiveness from his sister."

Question 3

The English translation says "his sister's," but there is no word for "his" in the Russian sentence. Why?

Accepted Answer

In Russian, possessive pronouns are frequently dropped when the relationship or ownership is obvious from the context. Since he is asking for forgiveness from a sister, it is naturally assumed to be his own. Adding своей (to make it у своей сестры) is grammatically fine but completely unnecessary and sounds slightly less natural.

Question 4

Could I just say Он извинился перед сестрой? What is the difference?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can. Он извинился перед сестрой is the standard, everyday way to say "He apologized to his sister." The phrase in this sentence, попросил прощения, is slightly more formal and carries a bit more emotional weight, as it literally means "asked for forgiveness." Notice that the grammatical structure also changes: извиниться requires the preposition перед + the Instrumental case.

Он попросил прощения у сестры.

Breakdown of Он попросил прощения у сестры.

Questions & Answers about Он попросил прощения у сестры.

Learn Он попросил прощения у сестры and more in Russian