Breakdown of В каждом штате свои законы.
каждый
every
свой
one's own
закон
the law
штат
the state (of the US); the staff (m)
Questions & Answers about В каждом штате свои законы.
The word штат is a foreign borrowing. Why does it decline here instead of staying fixed like some other foreign words?
While many foreign words and names ending in vowels (like метро or the surname Гюго) are indeclinable, foreign nouns and names ending in a consonant usually adapt completely to the Russian system. Since штат ends in a consonant, it declines just like a native masculine noun, hence the prepositional form штате.
Why do we use свои here instead of a pronoun like его?
In Russian, свой (one's own) is used to show that something belongs to the logical subject of the sentence. Even though grammatically законы (laws) is the subject here, the logical owner of the laws is the state (штате). Using свои sounds much more natural in this structure and emphasizes that the laws are unique to each specific state.
Why is there no verb like есть (there are) in this sentence?
While you could say В каждом штате есть свои законы, omitting есть is very common when the existence of the object is already assumed. We already know states have laws; omitting the verb shifts the focus entirely to the fact that these laws are distinct (свои), making it a statement about a permanent characteristic rather than mere existence.
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