Breakdown of Я смогу победить эту изоляцию.
я
I
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
смочь
to manage to, to be able to (perfective)
победить
to defeat / to win
изоляция
isolation (physical, medical)
Questions & Answers about Я смогу победить эту изоляцию.
Why does this sentence say смогу победить (I will be able to defeat) instead of just one word for 'I will defeat'?
The verb победить (to defeat/win) is a classic 'defective verb'. It doesn't have a 1st-person singular form in the future tense—there is no such word as я побежу or я победю. To express 'I will defeat', you must use a workaround. Adding смогу (I will be able to) before the infinitive is one of the most natural ways to solve this.
Could I use the future tense of the imperfective form, like я буду побеждать, to avoid this problem?
You could, but it changes the meaning. Побеждать is imperfective, so я буду побеждать means 'I will be defeating' or 'I will be winning' on a regular, ongoing basis. Here, the speaker wants to talk about a single, completed victory over this specific isolation, so a perfective workaround is required.
Since победить lacks an 'I' form, does it lack forms for 'you' or 'they' as well?
No, it is only defective for я (I). The rest of the future tense conjugation works perfectly normally. You can freely say ты победишь (you will defeat), она победит (she will defeat), and мы победим (we will defeat).
What is another common workaround if I don't want to use смогу (will be able to)?
Another very common phrasing is to use a completely different verb with a noun, such as я одержу победу над этой изоляцией (I will achieve victory over this isolation). However, in everyday speech, using смогу plus the infinitive is usually the simplest route.
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