"Bojíte se o svou manželku?"
Translation:Are you afraid for your wife?
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That would be a different sentence. The BÁT SE O construction (with the accusative) means to "be afraid for." BÁT SE alone (with the genitive) means "to be afraid of." Confusing!
So then, to ask the question, "Are you afraid of your wife?" one would say, Bojíte se svojí manželky?
The verb is in the second-person plural, so shouldn't it be 'afraid for your wives'?
Having trouble understanding the use of svuj. For instance in this sentence why can't it be "bojíte se o TVOU manželku?". I don't understand when to use svou
because bojíte and tvou are on the opposite sides of the T-V distinction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%E2%80%93V_distinction
Bojíš se o tvou manželku?
Bojíte se o vaši manželku?
Ok, understood why it can't be TVOU. (European) Portuguese has the same T-V distinction. But still don't understand the use of svuj since it can mean his, her, your. When to use it?
Svůj (etc.) is generally used when whatever is "owned" belongs to the subject. Here, it makes clear that A is asking B if B is afraid for B's (own) wife.
In English, if you say: Are you afraid for your wife? It means: something can happen to your wife and you are afraid of that.
This is a different sentence. It does NOT mean "are you afraid OF your wife".
