Russian word встреча

Asked by George Jagels on June 27, 2019

Question

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

Answer

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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