Breakdown of Когда она увидела подарок, она сразу улыбнулась.
Questions & Answers about Когда она увидела подарок, она сразу улыбнулась.
In Russian, a comma is required between a dependent clause and the main clause.
- Когда она увидела подарок – this is a dependent (subordinate) clause introduced by когда (when).
- она сразу улыбнулась – this is the main clause.
Rule: when the когда‑clause comes first, you must put a comma before the main clause.
You could also reverse the order:
- Она сразу улыбнулась, когда она увидела подарок.
You still need the comma.
Увидела is the past tense of the perfective verb увидеть. Perfective aspect is used for a single, completed action with a clear result. Here the important thing is the moment she noticed/registered the gift.
If you said:
- Когда она видела подарок, она сразу улыбалась.
this would sound like a repeated or ongoing situation: Whenever she saw the gift, she would smile.
So увидела fits better for one specific event that is completed.
Увидела is:
- увидеть (infinitive, perfective)
→ past masculine: уви́дел
→ add ‑а for feminine: уви́дела
So:
- уви́дел – he saw / he caught sight of
- уви́дела – she saw
- уви́дели – they saw
- уви́дело – it saw (rare, usually for neuter nouns like животное увидело)
The ending ‑а in увидела shows that the subject она is feminine.
Улыбнулась is the past tense, feminine, of the reflexive perfective verb улыбнуться (to smile).
- Infinitive: улыбну́ться
- Past masculine: улыбну́лся
- Past feminine: улыбну́лась
The ‑сь / ‑ся ending marks a reflexive verb. Many Russian verbs of feelings, movement of one’s body, and some intransitive actions are reflexive, even though in English we just say smile, laugh, wake up:
- улыба́ться / улы́бнуться – to smile
- смея́ться – to laugh
- просыпа́ться / просну́ться – to wake up
So она улыбнулась literally is something like she smiled herself, but in English we just say she smiled.
Both are past tense but differ in aspect:
- улыба́лась – imperfective; describes a process, a repeated or long-lasting action.
Она улыба́лась – She was smiling / she used to smile. - улыбну́лась – perfective; describes a single, completed action, often short.
Она улыбну́лась – She smiled (once, at that moment).
In this sentence, the idea is that she smiled at that exact moment, so the perfective улыбнулась is natural.
Подарок here is in the accusative case as the direct object of the verb увидела (she saw what? – the gift).
For inanimate masculine nouns like подарок, the accusative singular form is the same as the nominative singular:
- Nominative: пода́рок – a gift (subject)
- Accusative: пода́рок – a gift (object)
So the word looks the same, but its role in the sentence is determined by position and meaning: she saw the gift.
Yes, that word order is perfectly correct:
- Она сразу улыбнулась, когда она увидела подарок.
Meaning and grammar stay the same. Russian word order is more flexible than English. However:
- Starting with Когда… slightly emphasizes the condition/time: When she saw the gift, she immediately smiled.
- Starting with Она сразу улыбнулась… puts more focus on the reaction first: She immediately smiled when she saw the gift.
Yes. In spoken and written Russian, if the subject of both clauses is clearly the same, the second она can be omitted:
- Когда она увидела подарок, сразу улыбнулась.
This is natural and common. The listener understands that улыбнулась refers to the same она from the first clause. Keeping она is also correct but slightly more explicit or formal.
Сра́зу means immediately, right away, at once. It emphasizes that there was no delay between seeing the gift and smiling.
Common near-synonyms:
- сра́зу же – also immediately, a bit more emphatic.
- тотча́с – that very moment (more literary or old-fashioned).
- неме́дленно – immediately, without delay (more formal).
You could say:
- Когда она увидела подарок, она сразу же улыбнулась. – perfectly natural, maybe slightly stronger emphasis.
Сразу can appear in a few positions; all are understandable, but the nuance or rhythm changes slightly.
Most natural for this sentence:
- Она сразу улыбнулась. – neutral, standard.
Also possible:
- Она улыбнулась сразу.
This is also correct; it puts a tiny bit more emphasis on the verb улыбнулась, but in everyday speech it doesn’t feel very different.
You normally keep сразу close to the verb it modifies.
Stresses:
- Когда́ она́ уви́дела пода́рок, она́ сра́зу улыбну́лась.
Syllable by syllable (stressed syllables in caps):
- kog-DA
- a-NA
- u-VI-de-la
- po-DA-rok
- a-NA
- SRA-zu
- u-lyb-NU-lasʹ
Main things to watch:
- Когда́ – stress on the last а.
- Уви́дела – stress on ви.
- Пода́рок – stress on да.
- Сра́зу – stress on сра.
- Улыбну́лась – stress on ну́.
Russian does not have a separate grammatical past perfect like English (had seen).
Instead, Russian uses:
- Simple past with aspect (perfective vs imperfective)
- Word order and context
In this sentence:
- Когда она увидела подарок, она сразу улыбнулась.
The perfective увидела already contains the sense of a completed earlier action. The когда‑clause clearly comes first in time, so Russian doesn’t need a special had seen form.
English translates it as When she saw / When she had seen the present, she immediately smiled, but Russian sticks to simple past with perfective aspect.
In this particular sentence it clearly means when (referring to a specific past event).
However, in Russian когда can sometimes mean whenever / if in general statements:
- Когда он зол, он много курит. – When(ever) he is angry, he smokes a lot. (almost like if he is angry).
But in your example, because we’re talking about a single past action in the past tense (увидела, улыбнулась), когда is understood as when, not if.