Breakdown of Каждый собственник может голосовать или воздержаться.
Questions & Answers about Каждый собственник может голосовать или воздержаться.
Why are каждый and собственник singular if the meaning is plural in English?
Because Russian, like English, uses the singular after each/every.
- Каждый собственник = each/every owner
- Not каждые собственники
The idea is distributive: you are talking about owners one by one, not as a group.
Why is it каждый, not каждая, каждое, or some other form?
Каждый has to agree with the noun it describes.
Here, собственник is:
- masculine
- singular
- nominative
So the correct form is каждый.
Compare:
- каждый собственник — every owner
- каждая квартира — every apartment
- каждое решение — every decision
Why not say все собственники могут голосовать или воздержаться?
You could say that, but it is not exactly the same in nuance.
- Каждый собственник emphasizes each individual owner separately.
- Все собственники emphasizes all the owners as a group.
In rules, instructions, and legal-style language, каждый собственник is very common because it stresses that the right applies to every individual person.
Why is the verb может singular?
Because the subject is singular: каждый собственник.
So Russian uses the 3rd person singular form of мочь:
- я могу
- ты можешь
- он/она может
- мы можем
- вы можете
- они могут
If the sentence had все собственники, then it would be могут.
Does может mean can, may, or is allowed to here?
It can suggest any of those, depending on context.
In this sentence, it most likely means something like:
- can
- has the right to
- is allowed to
In formal or procedural language, может often sounds less like physical ability and more like permission or available option.
Why are голосовать and воздержаться in the infinitive?
Because after мочь Russian normally uses an infinitive.
This is the same basic pattern as in English:
- can vote
- может голосовать
More examples:
- может прийти — can come
- может помочь — can help
- может отказаться — can refuse
Why is it голосовать, but воздержаться? Why are the aspects different?
This is a very good question.
- голосовать is imperfective
- воздержаться is perfective
Russian can mix aspects if the speaker sees the two actions differently.
Here:
- голосовать names the general act of voting
- воздержаться presents abstaining as a single completed choice in that vote
In voting language, this combination sounds natural.
If you were talking about abstaining repeatedly or in general behavior, you might see воздерживаться instead.
What does -ся mean in воздержаться?
-ся is the reflexive ending.
Historically, воздержаться is related to the idea of restraining oneself. In modern Russian, though, you should mainly learn it as a whole verb meaning:
- to abstain
- to refrain
So here -ся is not something you translate separately; it is just part of the verb.
Why is there no object after голосовать? Vote for what?
Because Russian often leaves that unstated when the context is already clear.
Голосовать can stand by itself if everyone knows what vote is being discussed.
If needed, Russian can add more detail:
- голосовать за предложение — vote for the proposal
- голосовать против — vote against
- голосовать по вопросу — vote on the issue
In your sentence, the focus is just on the available options: vote or abstain.
Why are there no articles like a or the?
Russian does not have articles.
So собственник can correspond to:
- an owner
- the owner
- simply owner
The exact interpretation comes from context. In this sentence, каждый собственник naturally means every owner.
Can the word order be changed?
Yes. Russian word order is flexible.
The version you have is the most neutral and straightforward:
- Каждый собственник может голосовать или воздержаться.
A different order can shift emphasis. For example:
- Голосовать или воздержаться может каждый собственник.
This puts more emphasis on who has that option: every owner.
So the given order is standard, but not the only possible one.
How is this sentence pronounced? Where is the stress?
The stress is:
Ка́ждый со́бственник мо́жет голосова́ть или́ воздержа́ться.
A rough pronunciation guide:
- Ка́ждый — KAZH-dy
- со́бственник — SOB-stven-neek
- мо́жет — MO-zhet
- голосова́ть — ga-la-sa-VAT'
- или́ — ee-LEE
- воздержа́ться — vaz-der-ZHAT-sa
The unstressed o letters are usually pronounced more like a in normal speech, which is why голосовать does not sound exactly like it is spelled.
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