Breakdown of Он сознался в мошенничестве во время допроса.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
во время
during
допрос
interrogation
в
of (in accusations, confessions, oaths)
мошенничество
fraud
сознаться
to confess
Questions & Answers about Он сознался в мошенничестве во время допроса.
Why do we use в мошенничестве (in + Prepositional) when the English translation says confess to?
Verbs of confession, like сознаться, take в + Prepositional. Even though English uses 'to', Russian conceptually treats this as admitting your role in an action or crime. This is a key pattern for verbs dealing with conviction, insistence, and confession.
Why does the Prepositional form мошенничестве end in -е and not -и?
Because the nominative form is мошенничество (fraud). It is a neuter noun ending in -о (specifically -ство), not -ие. Standard neuter nouns ending in -о take a regular -е ending in the Prepositional case.
Could I use the imperfective form сознавался here instead of сознался?
You could, but it changes the meaning. The perfective сознался shows he made a single, completed confession. The imperfective сознавался would imply a repeated action or a drawn-out, ongoing process of confessing during the interrogation.
Why is допрос (interrogation) in the Genitive case here?
It follows the phrase во время (during), which acts as a compound preposition and always requires the Genitive case. Since допрос is a masculine noun ending in a consonant, it takes the -а ending to become допроса.
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