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I am trying to write a letter in russian. I am new to this language.
"...,юлди всё ещё посылают телеграммы своим родственникам друзьям".
What does this mean...my guess is "..their relatives and friends" but I am a little uncertain about the conjugation. Is it because the chain of words is controlled by a feminine noun that in dative and that the reason why the words ends in -им -ам and -ям?
Something is missing between the second and the third word in the expression.
"...своим родственникам друзьям"
is a phrase that has two nouns (родственникам, друзьям) and one (reflexive possessive) pronoun which you correctly identified.
The case is Dative, which answers the question "to whom" or "for whom" (not a simple translation of course, in Russian it's "кому"). All words are in the dative case, as if you "give" them something.
As Roman points out, a conjunction 'и' might be missing, or a comma (to make it
"...своим родственникам и друзьям"
"...своим родственникам, друзьям"
Two consecutive datives have no sense. Should be a comma or "and" between them, just like in English.
Свой is a reflexive pronoun. It may mean my, your, their or whatever depending on context.
So, according to the context:
"... люди всё ещё посылают телеграммы своим родственникам и друзьям"
It may be translated as "...people still send telegrams to their relatives and friends."
