Breakdown of Читать чужую переписку без согласия своего партнёра — это плохо.
это
this / it is
читать
to read
плохо
badly
партнёр
partner
чужой
someone else's
без
without
свой
one's own
переписка
correspondence
согласие
consent
Questions & Answers about Читать чужую переписку без согласия своего партнёра — это плохо.
Since there is no specific subject like "I" or "he" in this sentence, who does своего refer to?
When a sentence makes a general statement using an infinitive verb (like Читать here), the "owner" is understood to be whoever is doing the action. So, своего just means "one's own" in a general sense. It tells us that whoever is reading the messages is doing so without their own partner's consent.
Why is свой in the Genitive case (своего)?
It must perfectly match the case, gender, and number of the noun it modifies, which is партнёра. The word партнёра is in the Genitive case because it shows possession—it is the consent of the partner. Since партнёр is a masculine noun, we use the masculine Genitive form своего.
Is чужую the opposite of свою here?
Exactly! чужой is a very useful adjective that means "someone else's" or "foreign." While свой refers back to the subject's own things, чужой points to things belonging to others. Here, it is in the feminine Accusative form (чужую) because it directly modifies переписку (correspondence), which is the direct object of the verb Читать.
Why do we need the dash and это before плохо?
In Russian, when the subject of your sentence is an infinitive verb (like Читать) and you are stating a judgment about it using an adverb (like плохо), you usually use a dash followed by это to connect them. It acts just like the English word "is" in "To read... is bad."
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