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Russian word встреча

Thank you for your helpful answers to my previous questions.

I ran across a dual language e-book for Crime and Punishment. In the second paragraph of the first chapter we get
Он благополучно избегнул встречи с своею хозяйкой
Which is translates as
He had successfully avoided meeting his landlady

I looked up встречать (ся) / встетить(ся) in BARRON’S 501 RUSSIAN VERBS and I can’t find any form of the verb corresponding to встречи. I would have thought one of the infinitives would have been called for.

Could you help me understand this situation?

Thank you


1 answer
Answered by on

Hi George,

In this case, the word встречи is a noun in the Genitive case, "a meeting", встреча. The Russian verb "to avoid" (избегать-избегнуть) is always followed by a noun in the Genitive case, it can't be followed by a verb (gerund), as it happens in English.

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