Breakdown of Наша компания одобряет такие инвестиции очень редко.
наш
our (наш, наша, наше)
очень
very
редко
rarely
компания
company
такой
such / so / what ... is
инвестиция
investment
одобрять
to approve (endorse, express a favorable opinion)
Questions & Answers about Наша компания одобряет такие инвестиции очень редко.
Since this lesson is about the passive voice, why does this sentence use the active voice?
English uses the passive voice frequently, but Russian strongly prefers the active voice when the agent (the doer, наша компания) is known. Forcing this into the passive (инвестиции одобряются нашей компанией) sounds like heavy bureaucratic jargon, a register Russian usually restricts to formal legal or official documents.
If I did need to write this in the passive voice for an official document, how would it look?
You would use the imperfective reflexive verb одобряются (are approved). The sentence would become: Такие инвестиции очень редко одобряются нашей компанией. Notice that the agent (by our company) is placed in the instrumental case (нашей компанией).
What case is такие инвестиции, and why does it look like the subject?
It is in the accusative case because it is the direct object receiving the action of одобряет. It looks identical to the nominative case because инвестиция is an inanimate noun, and inanimate plural nouns do not change their endings in the accusative.
In English there is a difference between "approving" a document and "approving of" a decision. Does Russian make this distinction?
No, Russian uses одобрять (imperfective) or одобрить (perfective) for both meanings. In either situation, the verb simply takes a direct object in the accusative case without any prepositions.
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