Breakdown of Она не разрешает своим родителям вмешиваться в свою жизнь.
не
not
она
she / it (for a feminine noun)
в
in / to (direction)
родитель
parent
жизнь
life
свой
one's own
разрешать
to allow, to permit
вмешиваться
to interfere
Questions & Answers about Она не разрешает своим родителям вмешиваться в свою жизнь.
Why is своим родителям in the Dative case?
The verb разрешать (to allow) requires the Dative case for the person receiving permission. Since the parents are the ones being allowed, they take the Dative plural ending, and the pronoun свой matches them as своим.
Why does the sentence use своим and свою instead of её (her)?
Because the subject of the sentence (Она) is the one who "owns" the parents and the life. Whenever the subject possesses the object in Russian, you must use the reflexive possessive pronoun свой rather than normal possessive pronouns like её, его, or их. If you used её here, it would mean she doesn't want her parents interfering in some other woman's life!
Why is в свою жизнь in the Accusative case? Doesn't в usually take the Prepositional case?
The verb вмешиваться (to interfere / to meddle) uses в plus the Accusative case because it implies directing your actions into something else, much like a destination. Since жизнь (life) is a feminine noun, свой takes the feminine Accusative form свою.
Why does свой have two completely different endings (своим and свою) in the same sentence?
Свой acts like an adjective, meaning it has to match the gender, number, and case of the noun it describes. It becomes своим (Dative plural) to match родителям, and свою (Accusative feminine singular) to match жизнь.
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