Thread: Грамматика Фразы? - Просто жизни не хватит для этого.

Я не могу понимать грамматику этой фразы - "просто жизни не хватит для этого." Почему не "Жизнь просто не хватит для этого"? Я понимаю "для этого" но не "просто жизни не хватит"

... but whole life is not enough for this.

просто - conjunction
жизни - genitive (Нет денег, нет хлеба, нет жизни, нет любви... - same)

Originally Posted by pushvv

... but whole life is not enough for this.

просто - conjunction
жизни - genitive (Нет денег, нет хлеба, нет жизни, нет любви... - same)

Would this be another example of the genitive case with negation, or does знать use the Genitive case with direct objects?

невозможно говорить на любом языке, если не знаешь слов....

Also is it common with transitive verbs to apply the Genitive case to a negated direct object, I see this quite often when I read?

Originally Posted by M.Vonok

Would this be another example of the genitive case with negation, or does знать use the Genitive case with direct objects?

невозможно говорить на любом языке, если не знаешь слов....

Also is it common with transitive verbs to apply the Genitive case to a negated direct object, I see this quite often when I read?

The genetive case with negations implies absense or lack of something.

Жизни не хватит - here it implies that one life won't be enough for a particular purporse - lack

Also, знать means to have knowledge, have somehing stored in your mind etc, so it requires the genetive case after it if if you use it negatively.

Я не знаю слов - Look at that like this --- The words are absent from my mind or I don't have the words stored in my mind - absence

However, you still can say я не знаю слова, but this one would sound more general, like you don't know words at all

But, other verbs may not imply having something with their meanings. So they don't take the genetive case for their objects if you use the verb negatively.

For example:

Я люблю стол - Стол is in accusative
Я не люблю стол - Стол is still in accusative

That's because любить doesn't mean to have love but to be in love

No one noticed that the genitive case here is used not due to the negation, but due to the verb itself.

The verb "хватать (imperf.) / "хватить" (perf.) meaning "to suffice, to be enough" always requires genitive, even if not negated.

Мне хватило твоих денег. - Your money were enough to me.
Мне этого хватает. - This is enough to me.
Им вполне хватает вашей помощи. - Your help is quite enough to them.

This verb is impersonal, it does not have any subject. (The dummy pronoun "it" as in English is assumed but not used in Russian).
The syntax of those constructions can be roughly rendered in English as

Мне хватило твоих денег. - To me (it) was-sufficient-amount OF your money.

In negative forms the genitive is still preserved:

Мне не хватило твоих денег. - To me (it) was-insufficient-amount OF your money.

So, "Просто жизни не хватит для этого" = "Для этого просто не хватит жизни" (more English-like word order) = "For that, just (it) will-not-be-sufficient-duration OF life".

— Вызовите отца на дуэль.
— Никогда!
— Но почему?
— Во-первых, он меня убьёт, а во-вторых…
— И первого достаточно!

Everyone, who wants to learn how to use "хватать", should also learn "достаточно" (short adjective). It also demands Genitive, but often (it seems, mostly for the Present) we should prefer it over "хватать". Here you just can't say "И первого хватает!"