Breakdown of По-моему, закон должен гарантировать свободу любому человеку.
человек
person
должен
must, have to
любой
any
по-моему
in my opinion
Questions & Answers about По-моему, закон должен гарантировать свободу любому человеку.
Why is любому used here instead of каждому or всему?
Любой emphasizes free choice and a lack of exceptions: 'absolutely anyone, no matter who.' If we used каждому (to every), the focus would shift slightly to counting everyone in a specific group (each and every person). Всему (to all / the whole) doesn't work here at all because всему человеку would mean 'to the whole person' (from head to toe), rather than 'to all people'.
Why is любой in the form любому?
It is in the dative case. The verb гарантировать (to guarantee) takes an indirect object in the dative case to show who is receiving the guarantee. Since it describes человеку (to a person, dative masculine singular), the pronoun любой must match it and becomes любому.
Why does по-моему have a hyphen and a comma after it?
По-моему translates to 'in my opinion.' It is formed with the prefix по- and the dative ending -ему, a combination that requires a hyphen in Russian spelling. The comma is required because introductory phrases (like 'In my opinion' or 'Fortunately') must always be separated from the main sentence by commas.
Why use the short form должен here?