Breakdown of Когда я слышу её спокойный голос, моё напряжение сразу проходит.
Questions & Answers about Когда я слышу её спокойный голос, моё напряжение сразу проходит.
Когда means “when/whenever” and describes a regular, real situation:
- Когда я слышу её спокойный голос… = Whenever I hear her calm voice… (this actually happens, it’s a repeated fact).
Если means “if” and makes it sound hypothetical or conditional:
- Если я слышу её спокойный голос… = If I hear her calm voice… (more about a condition; not necessarily something that always happens).
In your sentence the speaker describes a typical, real reaction, so когда is the natural choice.
Russian distinguishes слышать and слушать much like English distinguishes to hear and to listen (to):
- слышать = to hear (perceive sound, not necessarily on purpose)
- я слышу её голос = I hear her voice
- слушать = to listen (to) (an intentional action)
- я слушаю её голос = I am listening to her voice
In this sentence the focus is on the effect that simply hearing her calm voice has, not on the deliberate act of listening, so я слышу is more natural.
Она and её are different forms of the same pronoun:
- она = she (nominative, subject form)
- Она говорит. – She is speaking.
- её = her (both genitive and accusative forms)
- Я слышу её голос. – I hear her voice. (whose voice? her voice)
In её спокойный голос, её is a possessive pronoun, meaning “her” in the sense of “belonging to her”. You cannot use она there; она спокойный голос is ungrammatical.
Note: in typed Russian you’ll often see ее instead of её; they are the same word, just without the dots over ё.
The neutral, most common order in Russian is:
- её спокойный голос = her calm voice
(possessive → quality → noun)
спокойный её голос is possible, but sounds more expressive and marked, as if you are emphasizing the calmness in contrast to some other quality or to someone else’s voice. For example:
- спокойный её голос, а не раздражённый – her calm voice, not an irritated one.
In your sentence, there’s no special contrast; we just neutrally describe whose voice it is and what kind of voice it is. So её спокойный голос is the natural choice.
Both phrases are in the nominative case, because they are subjects of their respective verbs:
In Когда я слышу её спокойный голос:
- я is the subject, слышу is the verb,
- её спокойный голос is the direct object (accusative).
- The noun голос is masculine inanimate, so nominative and accusative have the same form (голос).
In моё напряжение сразу проходит:
- моё напряжение is the subject (nominative neuter),
- проходит is the verb.
So:
- голос – masculine, here: form = nominative/accusative singular.
- напряжение – neuter nominative singular (subject of the second clause).
This is about gender agreement between adjectives/pronouns and nouns:
- голос is masculine.
- Masculine adjective ending in nominative singular: -ый / -ий
- → спокойный голос – calm voice
- напряжение is neuter.
- Neuter possessive pronoun: моё (from мой/моё/моя/мои)
- → моё напряжение – my tension
So:
- masculine: мой спокойный голос
- neuter: моё напряжение
- feminine: моя проблема
- plural: мои чувства
The forms спокойный and моё are chosen to match the grammatical gender of голос and напряжение, respectively.
Сразу means “immediately / right away”.
- моё напряжение проходит – my tension goes away (no info about speed)
- моё напряжение сразу проходит – my tension goes away immediately / at once
You can omit сразу grammatically, but you would lose the nuance of quick, almost instant relief.
Other similar adverbs:
- сразу же – a bit more emphatic: right away, instantly
- немедленно – more formal: immediately
Three aspects/verbs here:
проходит (from проходить, imperfective):
- literally “passes, goes away”
- here in present tense, describing a typical, repeated reaction:
- моё напряжение сразу проходит = my tension immediately goes away (whenever this happens)
пройдёт (from пройти, perfective):
- future meaning “will pass / will be over”
- моё напряжение сразу пройдёт = my tension will immediately pass
- sounds like a prediction about one specific future event, not a general rule.
уходит (from уходить) also exists:
- моё напряжение уходит = my tension goes away
- Stylistically fine, but проходит is more standard for talking about pain, stress, anxiety disappearing:
- головная боль проходит, усталость проходит, напряжение проходит.
So проходит in the present imperfective fits a general, habitual statement: what usually happens whenever you hear her voice.
Russian uses a comma to separate a subordinate clause (introduced by когда) from the main clause:
- Когда я слышу её спокойный голос, – subordinate clause of time (when?)
- моё напряжение сразу проходит. – main clause (what happens?)
Rule of thumb:
When you have когда introducing a full clause with its own subject and verb, and then another clause, you normally separate them with a comma:
- Когда я устал, я ложусь спать. – When I’m tired, I go to bed.
- Я ложусь спать, когда я устал.
Your sentence follows this standard pattern.
Yes, that is grammatically correct and very natural:
- Когда я слышу её спокойный голос, я сразу расслабляюсь.
= When I hear her calm voice, I immediately relax.
The difference is in what you emphasize:
- моё напряжение сразу проходит – focuses on the disappearance of tension itself.
- я сразу расслабляюсь – focuses on your state / action (you relax).
Both express basically the same idea, but the original sentence makes “tension” the subject and sounds slightly more impersonal and descriptive.
Слышать vs услышать is an aspect difference:
слышать (imperfective) – to hear in general, as a process or repeated situation.
- Когда я слышу её спокойный голос… – Whenever I hear her calm voice… (habitual, general).
услышать (perfective) – to hear once, as a completed event; often with future meaning.
- Когда я услышу её спокойный голос, моё напряжение сразу пройдёт.
= When I (finally) hear her calm voice, my tension will immediately pass.
→ sounds like talking about one specific future time (e.g., “when I call her later”).
- Когда я услышу её спокойный голос, моё напряжение сразу пройдёт.
In your original sentence, the speaker is describing what usually happens, so the imperfective слышу is correct.
напряжение: stress on -же-
- na-pri-ZHEN-i-ye (IPA: [nəˈprʲeʐənʲɪje])
- Letters:
- я after р → softens р: [prʲe]
- ж is the same sound as s in measure.
проходит: stress on -хо-
- pra-KHO-dit (IPA: [prɐˈxodʲɪt])
- х is like the ch in German Bach or Spanish j in José.
- Final -дь is soft [dʲ].
Correct stress is important because напряжЕние with stress elsewhere sounds wrong to native speakers; it must be напряжЕние (on е).