Learn Hardcore Russian: Каждый человек по-своему переживает стресс. - Each person experiences stress in their own way.

Каждый человек по-своему переживает стресс.
Literally: Every person experiences stress in their own way.
This is explicit and neutral: it specifies that we are talking about people.
Каждый по-своему переживает стресс.
Literally: Everyone experiences stress in their own way.
This is shorter and a bit more colloquial; человек is just understood.

Using человек makes the sentence a bit more formal/neutral and very clear in isolation (for example, as a stand‑alone quote in a textbook). Dropping человек is completely natural in everyday speech or when the context already makes it clear we’re talking about people.

What exactly does по-своему mean, and how is it formed?

По-своему means “in one’s own way / in their own way.”

It is formed from:

the preposition по
the possessive pronoun свой (one’s own)
the dative ending -ему

So literally it is “according to one’s own (way)”, but in real usage it functions as an adverb: in one’s own way.

Compare:

по-моему – in my opinion / as I see it
по-твоему – in your opinion / in your way
по-ихнему (colloquial / non‑standard) – in their way

In these expressions, the по‑…‑ому/‑ему pattern turns a pronoun into an adverbial phrase.

Why is there a hyphen in по-своему?

Russian often uses по‑ + pronoun/adjective + ‑ому / ‑ему to form adverbs, and these are normally written with a hyphen:

по-своему – in one’s own way
по-моему – in my opinion
по-новому – in a new way
по-русски – in Russian (language); in a Russian way

So the hyphen is just regular spelling for this adverbial pattern. Without the hyphen (по своему) it would usually be read as the preposition + a separate word in the dative case: по своему другу – to/according to one’s friend, which is a different structure.

Why is it своему and not свой or своим?

The base form is the possessive pronoun свой (one’s own), but it changes form according to case, number, and gender.

Here, in по-своему, it is in the dative singular neuter/masculine form: своему. That form appears because of the frozen pattern по‑…‑ому / ‑ему that forms an adverb.

You don’t need to think of an actual noun behind it in this expression. Historically it is like по (какому?) своему (образу / пути) – according to one’s own (way/path), but synchronically, по-своему is just an indivisible adverb: “in one’s own way.”

Why is it своему and not его or её for “his / her own way”?

Свой is a reflexive possessive pronoun. It means “one’s own” and by default refers back to the subject of the clause:

Каждый человек по-своему переживает стресс.
Every person experiences stress in their own way.

If we used его or её, it might sound like every person experiences stress in someone else’s way:

Каждый человек по его-своему… – this does not work; по-его is not standard in this adverb pattern, and using его / её here would be unidiomatic anyway.

In constructions like по-своему, Russian almost always uses свой, not его / её / их. It is the normal way to express “one’s own” when the owner is the subject.

What is the literal translation of the whole sentence, and how is it best translated in natural English?

A close literal translation:

Каждый человек по-своему переживает стресс.
Every person in-their-own-way experiences stress.

Natural English equivalents:

Every person experiences stress in their own way.
Everyone handles stress in their own way.
People cope with stress in their own way.

The idea is not just that everyone has stress, but that each person’s way of going through / coping with stress is individual.

What does переживает mean here, and why this verb instead of others like испытывает?

The verb переживать has several related meanings:

To go through / live through something difficult (often emotionally):
- переживать стресс – to experience / go through stress
- переживать разрыв – to go through a breakup
To worry / be anxious:
- Я переживаю за тебя. – I’m worried about you.

In this sentence, переживать стресс emphasizes the internal emotional experience and coping process, not just the fact of being under stress.

Испытывать стресс would sound more neutral and “technical” – to experience stress, to be under stress (just as a state).
Переживать стресс often hints at the emotional struggle or inner processing of that stress, which matches the idea of each person having their own way of dealing with it.

Why is переживает in the present tense imperfective, not something like переживёт?

Переживать is imperfective; переживёт would be from the perfective пережить.

Imperfective present (переживает) is used here for a general truth / habitual action:
- Каждый человек по-своему переживает стресс.
  Every person (habitually / generally) experiences stress in their own way.

Using the perfective future переживёт would mean “will (eventually) get through it,” focusing on a single, completed event:

Он переживёт этот стресс. – He will get through this stress / survive this stressful period.

That is a different meaning. The sentence we have is a general statement about human nature, so the imperfective present is the natural choice.

Is стресс in Russian just the same as English “stress”?

Стресс is a loanword from English and is very close in meaning:

psychological / emotional stress
physical stress (on the body), in more specialized contexts

Common patterns:

испытывать стресс – to experience stress
на работе у меня много стресса – I have a lot of stress at work
стрессовая ситуация – stressful situation

Note: стресс is a masculine, countable noun, but in many contexts it behaves almost like a mass noun:

у меня стресс – I’m stressed / I’m under stress
много стресса – a lot of stress

Plural стрессы exists (e.g. жизненные стрессы – life stresses), but is less common in casual speech.

Could the word order be different, like Каждый человек переживает стресс по-своему? Does that change the meaning?

Yes, you can say:

Каждый человек переживает стресс по-своему.

This is fully grammatical and natural. The basic meaning is the same: everyone experiences stress in their own way.

Nuances of word order in Russian are subtle and context‑dependent, but here:

Каждый человек по-своему переживает стресс.
Slightly emphasizes по-своему earlier: it is in their own way that each person experiences stress.
Каждый человек переживает стресс по-своему.
Feels a bit more neutral, with по-своему attached directly to переживает стресс as a manner adverbial.

In most everyday contexts, they are interchangeable.

Why do we use человек in the singular to talk about “every person / everyone,” instead of a plural like люди?

Russian, like English, commonly uses a generic singular with “every”:

Каждый человек… – Every person…
Every person…

Using люди would need a different structure:

Все люди по-своему переживают стресс.
All people experience stress in their own way.

So:

каждый человек = every person (generic singular)
все люди = all people (plural)

Both can express a general truth, but каждый человек focuses more on the individual aspect, which fits well with по-своему (“each in their own way”).

Is there a difference between по-своему and по-разному in this context?

Both would work:

Каждый человек по-своему переживает стресс.
Every person experiences stress in their own way.
Каждый человек по-разному переживает стресс.
Every person experiences stress differently.

Nuance:

по-своему highlights the individual, personal, unique way of each person.
по-разному just states “in different ways” in a more general, impersonal way.

So по-своему sounds a bit more personal/individualized; по-разному is more neutral and abstract.

How do you pronounce по-своему and where is the stress in this word?

По-своему is pronounced roughly like pa-SVOY-e-mu, with the stress on the first syllable of своему:

по‑сво́‑е‑му

Syllable by syllable:

по – [pa]
сво – [svo] (the в is pronounced)
е – here it’s part of ему, pronounced [ye] after a consonant
му – [mu]

So, по-сво́ему.