Breakdown of Она стремится к своей цели.
она
she / it (for a feminine noun)
свой
one's own
цель
goal
стремиться
to strive, to aspire
Questions & Answers about Она стремится к своей цели.
Why does this sentence use the preposition к and the Dative case?
The verb стремиться (to strive) governs the preposition к (towards) plus the Dative case to show the target of the aspiration. While your current lesson focuses on verbs that take the Dative without prepositions, стремиться operates differently and always needs к to indicate what you are aiming for.
Why use своей instead of её for 'her'?
Свой (and its forms like the feminine Dative своей) is a reflexive possessive pronoun that refers back to the subject of the sentence. Since the subject Она (She) is striving for her own goal, Russian requires своей. Using её here would mean she is striving towards some other woman's goal.
Цель (goal) is a feminine noun. Why does it end in -и here?
Цель is a feminine noun ending in a soft sign (-ь), placing it in the 3rd declension group. For 3rd declension nouns, the Dative case ending is -и. Because the preposition к requires the Dative case, цель becomes цели.
Why does the verb стремится not have a soft sign before the -ся?
This is a conjugated verb in the present tense: Она стремится (She strives). The soft sign is only used in the infinitive form стремиться (to strive). A helpful trick for reflexive verbs is to ask the question: 'What is she doing?' (Что делает?). Since there is no soft sign at the end of делает, there is no soft sign in стремится.
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