118 Unit 8: Люби�мый óтдых
Са�шa лю�бит свою� жену� ‘Sasha loves his wife’. This means that
Sasha loves his own wife. Са�ша лю�бит его� жену� ‘Sasha loves his
wife’. Here, Sasha loves someone else’s wife. In order to make this
distinction clear, свой MUST be used instead of его�, её, нх when
referring to ownership by the subject of the clause.
Under these same circumstances, свой is often used instead of
мой, твой, наш, ваш: Ты лю�бишь cвою� жену�? ‘Do you love your
wife?’ Where there is no danger of ambiguity, possessives are more
frequently omitted in Russian than in English: Она лю�бит мать ‘She
loves her mother’.
Свой refers to the subject of a clause but is never part of the sub-
ject. Thus, свой does not normally appear in the nominative. The only
major exception is in sentences where ‘to have’ is translated by the
preposition y: У ка�ждого студе�нтa своя� ко�мната ‘Each student has
his own room’.
It is important to be sure that свой refers to the subject of the
clause it is in, not the subject of a clause earlier in the sentence:
Са�ша зна�ет, кто лю�бит его� жену� ‘Sasha knows who loves his
wife’. Provided the wife in question is Sasha’s, the correct translation
of ‘his’ is его,� not cвою,� because Sasha is the subject of the clause
‘Sasha knows’, while ‘who’ is the subject of the clause with the word
‘his’ in it.Упражне�ние 5
Insert a suitable possessive using свой, своя� or своё whenever
possible.
Мы вceгда прово� дим . . . о� тпуск на ю� �ге. Он говори�т, что в этом году� . . . �
мать не е�дет c ним. Са�ша сове�тует . . . дру�гу е�xать на Кавка�з.
Тама�ра не зна�ет, что . . . муж говори�т o . . . рабо�те. Ди�ма хорошо�
зна�ет . . . при�город. Она� не зна�ет, что сейча�с де�лает . . . дочь.
Де�ти пи�шут письмо� . . . англи�йскому дру�г у. Та�ня чита�ет кни�гу . . .
ма�ленькой сестре�. Вы должны� ду�мать o . . . бу�дущем.Prepositional case ending in -у�
Some masculine nouns take the ending -у� in the prepositional case
after the prepositions в and нa when they denote location: Дом
нахо�дится в лесу� ‘The house is situated in the forest’. Other