Breakdown of Выбираешь тактичный ответ, чтобы коллега не чувствовал себя неловко.
не
not
ответ
answer
выбирать
to choose
коллега
colleague
себя
oneself (себе: Dat/Prep)
чувствовать
to feel
чтобы
in order to
неловко
awkwardly
тактичный
tactful
Questions & Answers about Выбираешь тактичный ответ, чтобы коллега не чувствовал себя неловко.
Why is ты omitted before выбираешь?
This is a generalized-personal clause. By dropping ты, the sentence shifts from meaning "you specifically" to "one" or "people in general". In English, we often use a generic "you" for this. Russian achieves this by using the 2nd-person singular verb without the pronoun.
The first half is in the present tense (выбираешь). Why is the second verb in the past tense (чувствовал)?
This is required by the conjunction чтобы (so that). When the subject of the main clause (the generic "you") is different from the subject of the subordinate clause (коллега), the verb after чтобы must always be in the past tense, regardless of when the action actually happens.
Why do we need себя after чувствовал?
In Russian, чувствовать (to feel) on its own usually means physically sensing an object or sensation. To express feeling an emotion or a state of being (like feeling awkward, good, or bad), you must use it with the reflexive pronoun себя (literally "to feel oneself").
Коллега ends in -а, which usually looks feminine. Why does it take the masculine verb чувствовал?
Коллега is a "common gender" noun. Its grammatical gender matches the biological gender of the person it refers to. Here, using the masculine past tense чувствовал either implies the specific colleague is male, or it acts as a generic default for any colleague.
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