Breakdown of Хотя они друзья, они обвиняют друг друга в мошенничестве.
они
they
друг
friend
хотя
although
друг друга
each other
обвинять
to accuse
в
of (in accusations, confessions, oaths)
мошенничество
fraud
Questions & Answers about Хотя они друзья, они обвиняют друг друга в мошенничестве.
Why is it в мошенничестве when English uses "of fraud"? Doesn't "of" usually mean we need the Genitive case?
Normally, yes! But the verb обвинять (to accuse) specifically requires the preposition в followed by the Prepositional case. This is a common pattern for Russian verbs dealing with conviction, blame, or confession. While English says "accuse of", Russian literally says "accuse in".
How exactly does the phrase друг друга work grammatically in this sentence?
The phrase друг друга means "each other." The trick is that the first друг never changes—it acts as a frozen anchor. Only the second part declines based on its role in the sentence. Here, "each other" is the direct object of обвиняют, so the second word takes the Accusative case. Because "friend" is an animate noun, its Accusative form is identical to the Genitive: друга.
I remember learning to put a dash between nouns in sentences with no verb. Why isn't there a dash between они and друзья?
The rule changes slightly with pronouns! When the subject is a personal pronoun (like я, он, or они) and the predicate is a noun, you generally drop the dash. You would only include it if you wanted to create a very dramatic, emphatic pause.
Is мошенничестве built from a word for a person, like "scammer"?
Yes, it comes from the noun мошенник (a swindler, cheat, or scammer). By adding the suffix -ство, Russian creates the abstract noun мошенничество (fraud or scamming). In this sentence, it ends in -е because it is in the Prepositional case.
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