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In a Russian political pop song the singer declares her admiration for Putin and says she wants:

Такого, как Путин, полного сил

The syntax of the last two words is not clear to me:
Indeed, сил seems to be the plural genitive of the feminine noun силa, and полного the singular masculine genitive of the adjective полный.
Could somebody please explain what is going on?

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  • can you please clarify what you mean by "what's going on?" - what exactly confuses you? the fact those words are in genitive? The fact that they are of a different gender?
    – shabunc ♦
    Nov 8, 2018 at 8:08
  • @shabunc: yes, why are the two words in the genitive. And why is Путин not in the genitive?
    – Georges Elencwajg
    Nov 8, 2018 at 8:41

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"Полного" is in genitive because it takes the same case as "такого". Compare:

Такой, как Путин, полный сил - nominative

Такому, как Путин, полному сил - dative

Таким, как Путин, полным сил - instrumental

"Сил" is in genitive because it's the expression "full of ..." - "полный сил", "полный энергии", "полный счастья".

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  • Thank you for this clear explanation, Abakan. But why does Путин remain in the nominative in the last two examples instead of turning into a dative or instrumental respectively? And сил is a genitive plural, right? Like "forces" or "energies" ?
    – Georges Elencwajg
    Nov 8, 2018 at 11:35
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    Yes, "сил" is plural. I think "Путин" remains in nominative because it is shorter and simpler. It is not incorrect or unusual to say "такому, как Путину, полному сил" etc.
    – Abakan
    Nov 8, 2018 at 11:41
  • Ah, again a very interesting comment: thanks a lot, Abakan.
    – Georges Elencwajg
    Nov 8, 2018 at 12:06
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    @Abakan it is impossible to say такому, как Путину. Такой, как я, таким, как ты, такими, как мы, для таких, как мой брат - the construction requires the Nominative case in the clause, while the further part will be coordinated with the case of the pronoun такой. "Таким, как они, молодым и красивым", "О такой, как она, замечательной девушке он всю жизнь мечтал". Or even "Таким, как вы, закон не писан" (compare вам закон не писан, таким закон не писан), "Такому, как он, сложно угодить" (compare ему сложно угодить, такому сложно угодить).
    – Elena
    Nov 9, 2018 at 8:04
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You're generally correct. "Полный" usually means "overweight" but can also mean "full of". So "Полный сил" = "Full of energy", just used in genitive in the song.

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  • полного [genitive noun] = "full of [noun]"; полного [accusative noun] = "complete [noun]"
    – Alexander
    Nov 7, 2018 at 22:29
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    Pay attention, that it is an expression полный сил, полон сил, полна сил, and the energy (or strength) is always plural there. Also полон надежд. Whereas полон энергии, полон радости, полон счастья involve the nouns in singular.
    – Elena
    Nov 8, 2018 at 6:32

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