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Thread: Is this sentence correct?

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  1. #7
    Старший оракул
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    How would you interpret the following sentence? --

    Ева и Вадим говорили об их друзьях.
    The thing is, what a person says is expected to make sense in the context of a conversation. If you indeed mean "other people's friends", you don't spring a sentence like this on a listener without it being clear who "other people" are. If somebody did that to me (like you did ), I would assume they meant "своих". This is the case of common sense taking precedence over grammar.


    -- Кто о чем вчера разговаривал?
    -- Ева и Вадим говорили об их друзьях.
    (их = своих, Ева и Вадим's, what else could it possibly be?)

    -- Вчера зашёл разговор о Петровых.
    -- О чём именно говорили?
    -- Ева и Вадим говорили об их друзьях.
    (genuine "их", Петровых)
    Last edited by E-learner; April 21st, 2013 at 09:01 AM. Reason: minor orthographic error
    Throbert McGee and iCake like this.

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