Breakdown of Если я долго сижу за компьютером, у меня тоже начинает болеть колено.
Questions & Answers about Если я долго сижу за компьютером, у меня тоже начинает болеть колено.
In Russian, the present tense is often used for general, repeated situations, especially in if-clauses with если.
- Если я долго сижу за компьютером…
literally: If I (tend to / generally) sit at the computer for a long time…
This is similar to English present simple in general statements:
- If I sit at the computer for a long time, my knee starts to hurt.
You can say:
- Если я буду долго сидеть за компьютером, у меня тоже начнёт болеть колено.
But this sounds more like a specific future situation:
- If I (on some particular future occasion) sit at the computer for a long time, then my knee will start to hurt.
So:
- сижу → general habit, typical pattern (most natural here)
- буду сидеть → more one-time or specific future event
Both если and когда can appear in similar sentences, but they have a different nuance.
- Если = if, introduces a condition, something that may or may not happen.
- Когда = when/whenever, introduces a time, something that is taken as real/inevitable.
In your sentence:
Если я долго сижу за компьютером, у меня тоже начинает болеть колено.
– Focus on the condition: If it happens that I sit for a long time…Когда я долго сижу за компьютером, у меня тоже начинает болеть колено.
– Focus on the time situation: When(ever) I sit for a long time…
Both are grammatically correct. Если slightly emphasizes the cause–effect relationship; когда slightly emphasizes the time frame and can sound a bit more neutral/habitual: whenever that happens.
The preposition за with the instrumental case is commonly used for being at a workplace or an object you sit at:
- сидеть за столом – to sit at the table
- сидеть за партой – to sit at a school desk
- сидеть за компьютером – to sit at the computer
Компьютером is the instrumental case of компьютер (singular masculine noun):
- nominative: компьютер
- instrumental: компьютером
So за компьютером literally means behind/at the computer, i.e., sitting in front of it, using it.
You would not usually say сидеть на компьютере – that would sound like you’re physically sitting on top of the computer.
This is a very common Russian pattern to express that part of your body hurts (or that you have something):
- У меня болит колено. – My knee hurts.
- У него болит голова. – He has a headache / His head hurts.
- У неё болит спина. – Her back hurts.
Structure:
- у + genitive pronoun (у меня, у тебя, у него, у неё, у нас…)
roughly: at me, at you, at him… (possessor) - a verb like болит / болят (or, in your sentence, начинает болеть)
- the body part as the grammatical subject: колено, голова, спина, etc.
So in:
- …у меня тоже начинает болеть колено.
literally: At me, the knee also begins to hurt.
You could say:
- Моё колено тоже начинает болеть.
This is grammatically correct and understandable, but the у меня construction is more typical, especially when talking about health, pain, or something you have/experience. It sounds very natural and idiomatic.
There are a few different ways to talk about pain:
болит / болят – is hurting / hurts (state, ongoing pain)
- У меня болит колено. – My knee hurts.
заболеть (perfective) – to start hurting, to become ill
- У меня заболело колено. – My knee started to hurt / suddenly began to hurt.
начинать болеть – to begin to hurt (focus on the beginning of the process)
- У меня начинает болеть колено. – My knee (is) starting to hurt.
In your sentence, начинает болеть emphasizes the onset of the pain, which fits well with the idea of a gradual effect after sitting for a long time.
- …у меня тоже болит колено. – My knee also hurts. (focus on the state)
- …у меня тоже начинает болеть колено. – My knee also starts to hurt. (focus on it beginning as a result of the condition)
Колено заболевает is grammatically possible, but it sounds much less natural in everyday speech for this context; заболело or начинает болеть are more idiomatic.
The subject of начинает is колено.
- колено – knee (neuter singular noun)
- 3rd person singular verb form for it (он/она/оно) is начинает
So the structure is:
- колено (subject)
- начинает (3rd singular verb)
- болеть (infinitive: to hurt)
Word order in Russian is more flexible, so the subject doesn’t have to stand right next to the verb. But grammatically:
- (У меня) тоже начинает болеть колено.
= The knee (of mine) also begins to hurt.
Even though у меня comes first, it is not the subject; it’s the possessor (literally “at me”). The subject is колено, so the verb must be 3rd person singular: начинает.
Тоже means “also / too / as well”.
In your sentence:
- …у меня тоже начинает болеть колено.
it means that in addition to someone else’s situation, you experience the same thing. For example, someone might have just said that their knee hurts when they sit at the computer, and you add:
- Если я долго сижу за компьютером, у меня тоже начинает болеть колено.
– If I sit at the computer for a long time, my knee also starts to hurt.
Typical positions for тоже are:
- У меня тоже начинает болеть колено. (very natural)
- У меня начинает тоже болеть колено. (possible, but less common/natural here)
- Тоже у меня начинает болеть колено. (sounds odd in normal speech)
The most neutral and idiomatic place is right after у меня. It associates тоже with me: I also have this symptom.
Yes, колено is singular: knee. You would use it if:
- Only one knee typically hurts.
- Or you’re just talking about a knee in a particular, singular way.
If both knees hurt, you could say:
- Если я долго сижу за компьютером, у меня начинают болеть колени.
– If I sit at the computer for a long time, my knees start to hurt.
Note the verb agreement:
- колено (singular) → начинает болеть
- колени (plural) → начинают болеть
So:
- колено – one knee
- колени – knees (both, or more than one)
Yes, you can change the word order, and the basic meaning stays the same, but nuances can shift slightly.
All of these are grammatically fine:
- У меня тоже начинает болеть колено.
- Колено у меня тоже начинает болеть.
- Тоже у меня колено начинает болеть. (less natural, sounds stylistically marked)
Differences:
У меня тоже начинает болеть колено.
– The most neutral; focuses on me also having this problem.Колено у меня тоже начинает болеть.
– Slightly more focus on the knee as the topic (“as for my knee, it also starts to hurt”). It can sound a bit more contrastive or explanatory, depending on context.
Russian word order is flexible primarily for information structure (what’s new, what’s emphasized), not for basic grammar. The basic grammar (cases, verb agreement) stays the same.
Сидеть is an irregularly stressed verb, and its 1st person singular form is сижу:
- infinitive: сидеть – to sit
- я: сижу
- ты: сидишь
- он/она/оно: сидит
- мы: сидим
- вы: сидите
- они: сидят
So the correct 1st person form is я сижу, not сидю.
Many Russian verbs in -еть form -жу / -шу in the 1st person singular, e.g.:
- видеть → вижу (I see)
- сидеть → сижу (I sit / I am sitting)
In Russian, если introduces a dependent clause (a conditional clause). The pattern is:
- Если
- clause 1, (то) clause 2.
So:
- Если я долго сижу за компьютером, у меня тоже начинает болеть колено.
The comma separates the if-clause from the main clause, just like in English:
- If I sit at the computer for a long time, my knee also starts to hurt.
If the если-clause comes second, you still use a comma:
- У меня тоже начинает болеть колено, если я долго сижу за компьютером.
Comma usage here is quite regular: you almost always put a comma between the если-clause and the main clause.