Когда я контролирую дыхание, сердце бьётся тише.

When I control my breathing, my heart beats more quietly.

Breakdown of Когда я контролирую дыхание, сердце бьётся тише.

• я: I
• когда: when
• сердце: the heart
• контролировать: to control
• дыхание: the breathing
• биться: to beat
• тише: more quietly

Questions & Answers about Когда я контролирую дыхание, сердце бьётся тише.

Why is there a comma in «Когда я контролирую дыхание, сердце бьётся тише»?

In Russian, a clause introduced by когда (when) is a subordinate clause. The structure here is:

• Когда я контролирую дыхание – subordinate (dependent) clause
• сердце бьётся тише – main clause

Russian punctuation rules require a comma between a subordinate clause and the main clause, just like in English:

• When I control my breathing, my heart beats more quietly.

So the comma is obligatory here.

Why is дыхание in this form? Shouldn’t the object be in some other case?

Дыхание is the direct object of контролирую, so it must be in the accusative case.

The noun дыхание is neuter: оно, дыхание. For most neuter nouns ending in -e/-ие, the nominative and accusative singular forms are identical:

• Nominative: дыхание (what? – breathing)
• Accusative: дыхание (what? – breathing, as a thing being controlled)

So even though it looks like the dictionary form, grammatically it is accusative.

Why is there no «моё» before дыхание and сердце? In English we say my breathing, my heart.

Russian often omits possessive pronouns (мой, твой, его, etc.) when it’s obvious from context whose thing it is, especially with:

• body parts: рука, нога, сердце
• personal actions/states: дыхание, настроение, etc.

So:

• Когда я контролирую дыхание is naturally understood as my breathing.
• Сердце бьётся тише is understood as my heart.

You can say моё дыхание or моё сердце, but here that sounds unnecessary or even slightly heavy. Native speakers normally omit the possessive in such contexts.

What is the difference between бить and биться? Why is it бьётся, not бьёт?

• бить = to beat, to hit (transitive, acts on something)

  • Он бьёт мяч. – He hits the ball.

• биться = to beat, to strike repeatedly, to fight, to struggle (reflexive / intransitive)

  • Сердце бьётся. – The heart beats.

The heart is not beating something; it is beating by itself. That’s why Russian uses the reflexive form биться:

• сердце бьётся – the heart beats (literally: “beats itself”)

Бьётся is 3rd person singular, present tense, from биться:

• я бью́сь
• ты бьёшься
• он/она/оно бьётся
• мы бьёмся
• вы бьётесь
• они бьются

How do you pronounce бьётся and what is the role of ь and ё here?

Бьётся is pronounced roughly like [BYO-tsa] (more precisely [ˈbʲɵtsə]).

• ь (the “soft sign”) doesn’t have its own sound. It softens the preceding consonant б, making it palatalized (b’ rather than hard b).
• ё is always stressed and pronounced [yo].
• -тся / -тcя at the end is -т + сь (“-тся” spelling), pronounced close to -ца.

So:

• бьётся ≈ BYO-tsa, with a soft b and stressed ё.

What does тише mean exactly, and what is its base form?

Тише is the comparative form of the adjective тихий (quiet).

• тихий – quiet
• тише – quieter / more quietly

In this sentence, тише is used as an adverbial comparative, describing how the heart beats:

• сердце бьётся тише – the heart beats more quietly / quieter.

Russian often uses the comparative alone like this, without an explicit “than X,” when the comparison is clear from context (here: quieter than usual).

Why is контролирую in the present tense? In English we might also say “when I control” or “when I’m controlling”.

Russian present tense я контролирую covers both:

• English simple present: I control
• English present continuous: I am controlling

The choice between those two is made in English, not in Russian. Russian simply uses one present tense here to express a general rule / repeated situation:

• Когда я контролирую дыхание… – Whenever I control my breathing / When I’m controlling my breathing…

So using the present tense is natural for this kind of general statement.

What aspect is контролирую? Could you use a perfective verb here instead?

Контролирую comes from the verb контролировать, which is imperfective.

Here we are talking about a process or a repeated action: every time I am in the state of controlling my breathing, my heart beats more quietly. That’s exactly what the imperfective aspect is for.

A perfective verb (like many prefixed variants) would suggest a single completed act of control (e.g. “I manage to control it once”), which doesn’t fit the meaning of a general, repeated situation introduced by когда.

So:

• Когда я контролирую дыхание… – correct (imperfective, general rule).
• A perfective alternative would sound odd or change the meaning.

Could I say «Когда я контролирую своё дыхание»? Is that more correct or more natural?

You can say «Когда я контролирую своё дыхание»; it is grammatically correct and understandable.

Nuance:

• Когда я контролирую дыхание – neutral, natural, what most natives would say.
• Когда я контролирую своё дыхание – slightly more explicit, may sound a bit more formal, careful, or contrastive (e.g. “not someone else’s breathing, my own”).

In everyday speech, the shorter version without своё is usually preferred unless you specifically need to emphasize whose breathing it is.

Why is it «сердце бьётся тише» and not «моё сердце бьётся тише» or «бьётся сердце тише»?

All three are possible, but they differ in style/emphasis:

1. Сердце бьётся тише.

   • Most neutral word order.
   • No моё because it’s obvious whose heart it is.
   • Subject (сердце) at the beginning is the default pattern.

2. Моё сердце бьётся тише.

   • Grammatically fine, but моё is usually unnecessary here.
   • Adds emphasis on my heart, or can sound a bit sentimental.

3. Бьётся сердце тише.

   • Possible, but now the focus often shifts more to the action (“is beating”) first.
   • This order feels a bit more poetic or stylistically marked.

For a simple, neutral statement about a physical effect on your body, Сердце бьётся тише is the most typical choice.