Breakdown of Пусть парфюмеры больше доверяют своему тончайшему обонянию, а не рецептам.
не
not
а
and (contrastive)
рецепт
recipe, prescription
свой
one's own
доверять
to trust
больше
more (quantity or size) / no longer, anymore
пусть
let
парфюмер
perfumer
тонкий
subtle, keen
обоняние
sense of smell
Questions & Answers about Пусть парфюмеры больше доверяют своему тончайшему обонянию, а не рецептам.
Why does the superlative тончайшему use the -айш- suffix instead of -ейш-?
The root adjective is тонкий (delicate). When forming this morphological superlative, the final stem consonant к mutates to ч. Because Russian spelling rules dictate that we use а rather than е after the hushing consonant ч, the suffix becomes -айш-, resulting in тончайший (here in the dative case as тончайшему).
Does тончайшему mean 'the most delicate' or 'extremely delicate' in this context?
Here it means 'extremely delicate.' Morphological superlatives (those with -ейш- or -айш-) are frequently used as 'elatives' to express a very high degree of a quality, rather than a strict comparison. If you specifically wanted to say 'the absolute most delicate,' you would typically use самому тонкому instead.
Why are своему тончайшему обонянию and рецептам in the dative case?
The verb доверять (to trust) always requires its object to be in the dative case. Here, the perfumers are trusting their sense of smell (обонянию) and not recipes (рецептам), so both objects take the dative.
Could we use их instead of своему to mean 'their'?
No, because using их would imply that the perfumers are trusting some other people's sense of smell. Whenever a possessive pronoun refers back to the subject of the same clause, you must use the reflexive possessive свой (which becomes своему here to match the dative neuter noun).
How does the word пусть function at the start of this sentence?
Пусть combines with the third-person verb доверяют to create a third-person imperative. This is the standard grammatical structure to express 'Let them [do something]' or 'May they [do something]' in Russian.
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