Breakdown of Dato che la riservatezza è sacra, lui difende la propria autonomia.
essere
to be
lui
he
difendere
to defend
dato che
given that
proprio
one's own
l'autonomia
autonomy
sacro
sacred
la riservatezza
confidentiality / privacy
Questions & Answers about Dato che la riservatezza è sacra, lui difende la propria autonomia.
Why use la propria here instead of la sua?
Proprio (and its forms) is used as a possessive adjective when it refers back to the subject of the third-person sentence — in this case, lui. While you could grammatically say la sua autonomia, using la propria strongly emphasizes that he is defending his own autonomy, and removes any confusion about whether he might be defending another man's autonomy.
Since the subject is lui (he), shouldn't it be proprio instead of propria?
No, because just like any other possessive adjective in Italian (like mio or suo), proprio must agree in gender and number with the thing being owned, not the owner! Since autonomia is a feminine singular noun, the adjective must be the feminine singular propria, regardless of the fact that a man owns it.
Does the phrase dato che (given that) require the subjunctive mood?
I've heard Italians use the English word "privacy". Is la riservatezza the better word to use?
Italians actually use both interchangeably! La riservatezza is the traditional Italian word (literally meaning "reservedness" or "confidentiality") and sounds a bit more formal and elegant. However, the English loanword la privacy (usually pronounced with an Italian accent as "pree-vah-see") is extremely common in everyday conversation.
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