Она говорила со своим партнёром.

Говорила is the past tense, feminine singular form of говорить.

Russian past tense changes for gender in the singular:

• говорил = he was speaking / he spoke
• говорила = she was speaking / she spoke
• говорило = it was speaking
• говорили = they were speaking

Because the subject is она (she), the verb has to be говорила.

Говорит is present tense: she speaks / she is speaking.

All of those can be possible, depending on context.

Говорила is the past tense of an imperfective verb (говорить), so it does not automatically mark one finished, completed event. It often suggests:

• an ongoing action: was talking
• a general past fact: talked
• repeated/habitual action: used to talk

So without more context, Она говорила со своим партнёром can mean things like:

• She was talking with her partner
• She talked with her partner
• She used to talk with her partner

The wider context tells you which English translation fits best.

Со is a pronunciation variant of с.

Russian often uses со instead of с when the next word begins with a consonant cluster that would be awkward to pronounce after с. Here the next word is своим, which starts with св-, so:

• со своим sounds natural
• с своим is much harder to say

This is similar to how English sometimes adjusts pronunciation for ease of speaking.

Other examples:

• со мной = with me
• со всеми = with everyone

So со here is chosen mainly for phonetic ease, not because the meaning changes.

Because the preposition с / со meaning with requires the instrumental case.

So both the possessive word and the noun must be in the instrumental singular:

• свой → своим
• партнёр → партнёром

That is why the phrase is:

• со своим партнёром

not:

• со свой партнёр

The instrumental is very commonly used after с / со when it means with.

Russian usually uses свой when the possessor is the same as the subject of the sentence.

Here:

• subject = она
• the partner belongs/relates to her

So Russian normally says:

• Она говорила со своим партнёром.

This is the standard reflexive possessive pattern.

If you say:

• Она говорила с её партнёром

it usually sounds like she was talking with her (someone else’s) partner, or it adds contrast/emphasis. In many contexts it would suggest the partner belongs to another woman, not to the subject herself.

So for her own partner, своим is the natural choice.

Партнёром is instrumental singular.

For many masculine nouns, one common instrumental singular ending is:

• -ом

So:

• партнёр → партнёром

You can often recognize the instrumental in phrases after с / со meaning with.

A few similar examples:

• с другом = with a friend
• с братом = with a brother
• с учителем = with a teacher

So партнёром is exactly what you would expect after со.

The dictionary form is говорить.

That is the infinitive, meaning to speak / to talk.

From говорить, you get past tense forms like:

• говорил
• говорила
• говорило
• говорили

So when learning vocabulary, you would usually store the verb as говорить, not говорила.

Yes. A very close alternative would be:

• Она разговаривала со своим партнёром.

Both говорить and разговаривать can be used for talking, but there is a slight difference:

• говорить is broader: to speak / to say / to talk
• разговаривать focuses more clearly on having a conversation

So разговаривала со своим партнёром can sound a bit more specifically like she was conversing with her partner.

In many contexts, though, both are natural.

Not necessarily.

Партнёр can mean different kinds of partner, depending on context:

• romantic partner
• business partner
• dance partner
• teammate / professional partner

So the word itself is somewhat broad. The exact meaning depends on the situation, even though the grammar stays the same.

No. Russian word order is relatively flexible.

Она говорила со своим партнёром is a neutral, natural order.

But other orders are possible for emphasis or style, for example:

• Со своим партнёром она говорила.
• Своим партнёром она говорила is not correct, because you still need со before the phrase.

Changing the word order usually changes focus rather than basic meaning. The original sentence sounds like a normal, neutral statement.

The correct form is партнёром, with ё.

The letter ё shows the sound yo and also marks the stress here. In many printed texts, Russian often replaces ё with е, so you may also see:

• партнером

But it is still understood as партнёром in pronunciation.

For learners, it is very useful to remember that the spoken form has ё:

• партнёр
• партнёром

In a grammatical sense, yes: свой means one’s own.

But in ordinary Russian, using свой in this kind of sentence is often just the normal way to say her when it refers back to the subject. It does not always sound strongly emphatic in English.

So although the structure is literally close to with her own partner, the most natural English translation is often just:

• with her partner

The reflexive possessive is normal Russian grammar, not necessarily extra emphasis.