"Нам не хватало денег на два дивана."
Translation:We did not have enough money for two couches.
10 Comments
"У нас нет достаточно" does not sound right. You can say "у нас недостаточно денег" or " "у нас нет достаточного количества денег" (we don't have the sufficient amount of money).
Suggestion: "enough" should be optional here. It's understood from context, and my reflex was to translate without it. (I admit to liking concise speech and writing.)
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What's the difference between didn't and did not?
Great value for money, really. My love for Duolingo grows by the day.
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Why is this in past tense? There is no был type word or ли ending of words
«хватало» is past tense, neuter, is it not? It would end in «-ли» if it were past tense plural.
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My question is related - why is it neuter/singular when денег is plural??
That's because деньги (plural) is not a subject of this sentence (which is apparent from the fact that денег is not nominative). It is actually a direct object, and objects don't determine the verb forms. This Russian sentence does not actually have an explicit subject, which means that its implicit subject is something like English "it" and hence the verb is neuter & singular. In general, this is quite common in Russian sentences with a "missing"/implicit subject, particularly in those describing a state of something (or things in general):
Мне было холодно. (I was cold.)
Нам повезло. (We were/got lucky.)
У нас не было еды. (We did not have food)
As a result, "нам хватает X"="There is/are enough X for us" always uses singular хватает (in any tense), while X is either singular uncountable or plural countable.
