Breakdown of Non rubiamo mai le idee altrui.
non
not
l'idea
the idea (f)
mai
ever / never
la
her/it (direct object)
Questions & Answers about Non rubiamo mai le idee altrui.
Why is altrui placed after idee instead of before it like other possessives?
altrui is a special indefinite possessive adjective meaning 'other people's' or 'belonging to others'. The strict rule for altrui is that it must always be placed after the noun it modifies. For a normal possessive you would say le nostre idee (our ideas), but with altrui it has to be le idee altrui.
Since idee is plural, why doesn't altrui change to match it?
In English we say 'other people's ideas' without an article. Why is the article le used here?
In Italian, you almost always need the definite article with possessives, and altrui is no exception. You can think of the Italian structure as 'the ideas of others'. The article le belongs to idee, and altrui simply acts as an adjective describing whose ideas they are.
Why does the sentence use non ... mai instead of just mai for 'never'?