Breakdown of В сети спорят, делала ли она пластическую операцию.
она
she / it (for a feminine noun)
делать
to do
в
in / to (direction)
спорить
to argue
сеть
network
ли
whether / if (in indirect questions)
операция
operation
пластический
plastic (surgery)
Questions & Answers about В сети спорят, делала ли она пластическую операцию.
Why is there no subject like они before спорят?
This is an indefinite-personal clause, which is the focus of this lesson. By leaving out они, the sentence focuses on the action rather than the specific people doing it. It translates to 'people are arguing' or 'they are arguing' in a general sense, much like говорят (they say).
How does the word ли work here to mean 'whether'?
In Russian, indirect yes/no questions use the particle ли. Unlike the English word 'whether', ли cannot start a clause. It must come immediately after the word being questioned, which is almost always the verb. So 'whether she had' becomes делала ли она.
The English translation says 'had' plastic surgery, but the Russian uses делала (did). Why?
In Russian, you do not 'have' a surgery, you 'do' it. The standard phrase for undergoing surgery is делать операцию. Since the focus here is simply on whether the event took place in general, the imperfective verb делала is used.
Is в сети the most common way to say 'online' in Russian?
Yes! Literally meaning 'in the network', в сети is a standard way to say that something is happening on the internet or on social media. You will also frequently hear в интернете, but в сети is very natural for describing online chatter.
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