Dear, Kind RLM,

Could you explain to me why in the following sentence, the proper form of the verb is заело and not заел?

• Едва самолет взлетел, как один из моторов заело.

Dear, Kind Linguist,

What you have in the phrase один из моторов заело is an impersonal construction, meaning that the verb заело has no subject, or, in Deep Grammar terms, no Agent, that is, the "doer of the action" is not noted.

So what role does один, the head noun of the genitive phrase один из моторов, play? Один is in the accusative case; it is the direct object of the transitive verb заело, in Deep Case Grammar terms, it is the Object.

Let's look at some similar constructions:

• По дороге в город, их сильно закачало.
  On the way to town, they got carsick.
  
  
• Глеба тошнило всю дорогу.
  Gleb was nauseous the entire way.
  
  
• Троих музыкантов убило, одного ранило.
  Three musicians were killed, one was wounded.

What do these sentences all have in common?

1. Like your sentence, they're all past tense impersonal constructions, the verbs occurring in the neuter past tense.
   (Non-present tense impersonal sentences employ the third-person singular form of the verb: Глеба тошнит. ~ "Gleb is nauseous.")
   
   
2. We know that all the verbs are transitive because they trigger accusative case direct objects.
   
   
3. The direct objects in our example sentences are all animate, to be exact, they're people.
   (From the perspective of Deep Case Grammar, the animate direct objects in these sentences are termed Experiencers.)
   
   
4. In all instances, there is an unnamed, unknown "external force" that affects the animate direct objects. In other words, something made the people "carsick" and Gleb "nauseous," something "killed" and "wounded" the musicians.
   
   Be that as it may, the sentences are all impersonal: the subject or Agent of the verb is not noted.

Now notice the grammatical parallels between our first set of sentences and the ones below, which include your example:

• Едва самолет взлетел, как один из моторов заело.
  Just as the plane lifted off, one of its engines failed.

• Он приказал мне выстрелить в отца, но ружье заело.
  He ordered me to shoot my father, but the rifle jammed.

• Он мне велел выстрелить еще раз. Но автомат снова заело.
  He ordered me to shoot once more. But the automatic jammed again.

• Все его стихи похожи. Одна и та же тема - словно пластинку заело.
  All of his poems are the same. The same constant theme - like a broken record.

Similar constructions, similar ideas. It's just that we're now dealing with inanimates - "planes," "guns," and "records" - that have been affected by external forces, the result of which is that the Objects malfunction and don't do what they're supposed to do. The engine "failed." The guns "jammed." The expression "like a broken record" means that the record "skipped."

All expressed by the impersonal construction заело + accusative case of the Object affected.

Note, however, that in all of the examples given above, the Russian impersonal constructions are rendered by personal constructions in the English translations.

The point is that in Russian, inanimate nouns are rarely the subjects of transitive verbs. What's the difference between these sentences?

• Boris broke the vase.
  
• The vase broke.

In the first instance the verb "to break" is transitive: it has an animate Agent or subject (Boris) and an Object (the vase). In the second sentence the verb "to break" is intransitive: there is no Agent, someone "doing the action," only an Object.

Notice what happens when these sentences are rendered in Russian:

• Борис разбил вазу.
• Ваза разбилась

In Russian, we actually have separate transitive and intransitive forms of verbs like "to break:" разбить and разбиться. The forms are distinguished by the suffix -ся, which is added to the transitive verb to form the intransitive.

There are many such transivite: intransitive verb pairs. Some examples:

• Французы начали эту войну.
  The French started this war.
• Война началась в 1941ом году.
  The war started in 1941.
  
  
• Она тихо закрыла дверь.
  She quietly closed the door.
• Oсторожно! Двери закрываются!
  Careful! The doors are closing!
  
  
• В начале века наш народ радостно строил коммунизм.
  At the beginning of the century our people joyously built communism.
• Храм Христа Спасителя строился не за деньги казни, а на народные пятаки.
  The Church of Christ the Saviour was not built at the expense of treasury funds but by the people's five-copek pieces.

So what have we learned?

1. Animates do things and things happen to animates.
   
2. Inanimates can't do anything, but things do happen to them.
   
3. Two ways to express "things happening to inanimates:"
   
   • Impersonal constructions
   • Intransitive -ся verbs.

All of which makes Russian a language "where things can't go bang in the night." A comforting thought. Especially, if you live alone.

Somebody kick that jukebox! The record's stuck!

The RLM