Thread: Clarification for a sentence.

I'm currently working through exercises, and came across a sentence that uses dative case in a way that I am not familiar with. I was hoping someone could explain it to me.

Каждый из учеников получил по книге.

I always thought 'to receive' took the accusative case? What is the grammatical difference/meaning here?

As always, thank you!

Каждый из учеников получил книгу - means everybody got a book
Каждый из учеников получил по (одной) книге - it would mean "everybody got one book"
These sentences are interchangeable
you can say
Каждый из учеников получил книги - everybody got books
But you cannot say
Каждый из учеников получил по книги - it's incorrect. This construction can only be used for single objects

However
Получить по морде - Means "get beaten" or "get punched to the face"
Получить по заслугам - means "get what one deserves" (usually in negative meaning)
Получить по первое число - it's an idiom. Means "get punished"

But
Получить по запросу - Means "get something by request"

I hope you are not more confused than before

Interesting thing you bring up. The по + noun here can be translated as " NOUN apiece" or "NOUN each".
Каждый из учеников получил по книге. The students got a book apiece. Or one book each. But funny that книга is not in the accusative. Notice you can't say Ученик получил по книге. Just as you can't say The student got a book apiece.

Каждый ученик получил по одной книге. Dative.
Каждый ученик получил по две книги. Две - Accusative (?)
What is the rule? I have no idea.

Any native Russian speaker who believes to know his language perfectly after 10 years of school should visit such forum and try to answer such questions.

Originally Posted by chaika

Notice you can't say Ученик получил по книге.

That would mean that the pupil got his book punished

Thank you all for the help!