Breakdown of Мне важно, чтобы у людей была свобода честно говорить о своих чувствах.
Questions & Answers about Мне важно, чтобы у людей была свобода честно говорить о своих чувствах.
In Russian, «Мне важно» literally means “(It is) important to me”.
- Мне = to me (dative case)
- важно = important (short-form adjective, neuter, used impersonally)
This is an impersonal construction: there is no grammatical subject like “it” in English; instead, the state of things is described as important to someone.
- Я важен = I am important (i.e., I myself are important, my person matters).
- Я важно is simply ungrammatical (the adjective must agree in gender and number with я, so you’d say я важен (m.), я важна (f.), etc., not важно).
Short-form adjectives in neuter (важно, интересно, приятно etc.) are often used in impersonal sentences to describe a general situation:
- Мне важно… – It is important to me…
- Тебе интересно… – It is interesting to you…
- Нам приятно… – It is pleasant for us…
The neuter form here does not refer to any noun; it matches an implied abstract subject like “it” in English (It is important…). This is a standard pattern in Russian.
Чтобы introduces a subordinate clause of desire/purpose/result and in many cases corresponds to English “that”, “so that”, or “in order that”.
- Мне важно, чтобы… – It is important to me that…
It sets up a situation that the speaker wants, prefers, or considers important. After чтобы, Russian normally uses a past tense verb with бы, which gives a subjunctive / “would” / hypothetical meaning – even when we translate it with a present tense in English.
After чтобы, Russian usually uses a past tense form + бы to express subjunctive / desired / hypothetical meaning:
- чтобы у людей была свобода… – literally: so that (there) would be freedom for people…
Even though English uses present here (“that people have freedom”), Russian expresses it with the past tense as part of the subjunctive pattern:
- чтобы он пришёл – that he (would) come
- чтобы они сделали – that they (would) do
You could sometimes see чтобы у людей была свобода without an explicit бы – the бы is often omitted in speech and still understood.
Russian often expresses possession with the structure «у + [genitive] + есть» (or without есть when it’s clear):
- У людей есть свобода. – People have freedom.
- У меня есть книга. – I have a book.
In the sentence:
- чтобы у людей была свобода…
we again have a “u + genitive” possession structure, but есть is omitted and the verb быть appears in past tense была for subjunctive:
- literally: so that at people there would be freedom…
Using «люди имеют свободу» is grammatically possible but sounds much more formal or bookish, and less natural in normal speech.
Людей is genitive plural of люди (people).
It is used because after «у» (in the sense of “by/at someone” for possession), Russian always requires genitive:
- у кого? – у людей, у мужчины, у ребёнка, у меня, у тебя, у нас…
So «у людей» = of people / at people / people have.
In the clause «чтобы у людей была свобода», the word свобода behaves like the grammatical subject of была:
- свобода была – freedom was
- чтобы была свобода – so that (there) would be freedom
So свобода is in the nominative because it is the thing that exists / would exist in that clause.
In Russian, it’s very natural to say свобода + infinitive to mean freedom to do something:
- свобода говорить – freedom to speak
- свобода выбирать – freedom to choose
- свобода путешествовать – freedom to travel
So «свобода честно говорить» literally is freedom (to) honestly speak, which corresponds to freedom to speak honestly.
Свобода честной речи would mean something like freedom of honest speech – grammatically possible, but stylistically odd here and not the natural way to say this idea.
After свобода in the sense “freedom to do something”, Russian almost always uses the infinitive:
- свобода работать – freedom to work
- свобода думать – freedom to think
The infinitive names the action in a general, abstract way, without saying who is doing it (that role is understood from context – here, it’s “people”).
Using a personal form like говорят (they speak) would change the structure and no longer express “freedom to do X” in the same natural way.
Честно is an adverb, meaning “honestly”.
In Russian, adverbs are used to modify verbs:
- говорить честно – to speak honestly
- работать усердно – to work diligently
- писать красиво – to write beautifully
Честный is an adjective, meaning “honest” (describing a noun, not an action):
- честный человек – an honest person
- честный ответ – an honest answer
Since we are describing how people speak (the manner of the action говорить), we need the adverb честно, not the adjective честный.
Своих is the reflexive possessive pronoun, and it usually means “one’s own”. It is used when the possessor is the same as the subject (or logical subject) of the clause.
Here the logical subject is люди (people):
- (люди) говорить о своих чувствах
→ (people) speak about their own feelings.
If we said о их чувствах, it would most naturally mean “about their feelings (someone else’s)” and could suggest that the feelings belong to another group of people, not to the speakers themselves.
So о своих чувствах clearly expresses “about their own feelings”.
Своих чувствах is in the prepositional plural:
- о чём? – о своих чувствах
Form breakdown:
- чувства → чувствах (prepositional plural)
- свои → своих (prepositional plural, agreeing with чувствах)
The prepositional case is used after о when we mean “about something”:
- говорить о проблеме / о проблемах
- думать о друзьях
- рассказывать о семье
So говорить о своих чувствах = to talk about one’s own feelings.
Yes, Russian word order in this phrase is flexible, and both are natural:
- честно говорить о своих чувствах
- говорить честно о своих чувствах
The basic meaning is the same: to speak honestly about one’s feelings.
Subtle nuances:
- честно говорить о своих чувствах can make “honestly” feel slightly more closely tied to the act of speaking in general.
- говорить честно о своих чувствах puts the verb first and can sound a bit more neutral.
But in everyday speech, they are practically interchangeable.