Breakdown of Тот кандидат смог одержать победу благодаря своей команде.
тот
that
свой
one's own
кандидат
candidate
команда
team
смочь
to manage to, to be able to (perfective)
благодаря
thanks to
победа
victory
одержать
to achieve (a victory, perfective)
Questions & Answers about Тот кандидат смог одержать победу благодаря своей команде.
Why use одержать победу instead of the simple verb победить?
Одержать победу is a formal analytical predicate. While победить just means to win, одержать победу sounds more formal, official, or journalistic, translating closer to achieving a victory. You will often see these constructions in news reports or official statements to add weight to the action.
Could I use a generic verb like сделать or получить with победу here?
No, these formal noun-verb pairs have highly specific collocations (words that naturally go together). To express achieving a victory, you must use одержать. Using a generic verb like сделать would sound unnatural to a native Russian speaker.
Why does the sentence use своей instead of его for his?
Свой is the reflexive possessive pronoun, meaning it refers back to the subject of the sentence (тот кандидат). Using его команде could be grammatically correct but might imply he won thanks to some other man's team. Using своей makes it absolutely clear that it was his own team.
What case follows благодаря, and why is it used here?
The preposition благодаря (thanks to) always requires the dative case. That is why the feminine noun команда and its modifying pronoun своя change to their dative forms here, becoming своей команде.
Why is the perfective verb смог used here instead of the imperfective мог?
Смог focuses on the successful completion of a specific, single effort, meaning he managed to or succeeded in doing it. If you used мог, it would describe a general past ability, without necessarily confirming that the victory actually happened on this specific occasion.
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