Breakdown of Секретарь кладёт договор в свою папку.
в
in / to (direction)
договор
contract / treaty
секретарь
secretary
класть
to put, lay (flat)
Questions & Answers about Секретарь кладёт договор в свою папку.
Why is свою used here instead of её (her)?
The reflexive possessive pronoun свой (and its forms like свою) means 'one's own' and refers back to the subject of the sentence. If we used её, it would mean the secretary is putting the contract into someone else's folder.
Why is the form свою instead of своя or свой?
It must match the noun it describes, папку (folder), in gender, number, and case. Because the action is directed into the folder, папку is in the Accusative case (feminine singular). The matching Accusative feminine form of свой is свою.
Why do we use the Accusative case (в свою папку) instead of the Prepositional case?
The verb кладёт (puts) shows motion towards a destination. In Russian, when the preposition в indicates direction (into), it takes the Accusative case. If we were describing where the contract already is (location), we would use the Prepositional case.
The word секретарь is masculine, so why does the English translation say 'her folder'?
Many job titles in Russian, like секретарь, are grammatically masculine but can refer to either a man or a woman. The English translation uses 'her' based on context, but the Russian word свою simply points back to the subject regardless of the person's actual gender.