Breakdown of Иван часто теряет свои наушники.
часто
often
Иван
Ivan
свой
one's own
терять
to lose
наушники
headphones
Questions & Answers about Иван часто теряет свои наушники.
Why does the sentence use свои instead of его for "his"?
Свои is a reflexive possessive pronoun that always points back to the subject of the sentence (in this case, Иван). It means "his own". If the sentence said Иван часто теряет его наушники, it would mean Ivan is losing some other guy's headphones!
Why does свой take the form свои here?
The pronoun свой has to match the noun it describes in gender, number, and case. Just like in English, наушники (headphones) is always a plural word. Therefore, we must use the plural form свои.
What case is the phrase свои наушники in?
It is in the Accusative case because it's the direct object—the thing being lost. Because headphones are inanimate (not alive), their Accusative plural form looks exactly the same as the Nominative (dictionary) plural.
What is the dictionary form (infinitive) of the verb теряет?
The infinitive is терять (to lose). It follows a very standard conjugation pattern. Because Ivan is "he" (third-person singular), we drop the -ть and add -ет to get теряет.
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