Breakdown of Если компьютер работает медленно, попробуй перезапустить его.
Questions & Answers about Если компьютер работает медленно, попробуй перезапустить его.
Because если introduces a subordinate conditional clause (Если компьютер работает медленно). In Russian, a subordinate clause is normally separated from the main clause with a comma:
- Если X, (то) Y.
- Y, если X.
То is optional here. It can be added for emphasis or clarity, especially in longer sentences:
- Если компьютер работает медленно, то попробуй перезапустить его.
Without то, the sentence is still completely natural and very common.
Russian often uses the present tense in если-clauses to talk about a general condition (“whenever/if it happens that…”), even if you mean a future situation in English. Here it means something like: “If the computer is (in the state of) running slowly…”.
If you specifically mean a future case, Russian can also use:
- Если компьютер будет работать медленно, ... (more explicitly “if it will be running slowly…”)
Медленно is an adverb meaning “slowly” and it modifies работает. The position работает медленно is the most neutral and common.
You can also say медленно работает, which can sound a bit more contrastive/emphatic (depending on context), but both are grammatically fine.
Попробуй is the informal singular imperative of попробовать (“to try”). It’s used to make a suggestion rather than a direct command:
- Попробуй перезапустить его. = “Try restarting it.”
For polite/formal or plural “you,” you’d use:
- попробуйте перезапустить его
In Russian, “try to do something” is commonly expressed as:
- попробовать + infinitive
So попробуй перезапустить is the standard structure.
You may also see similar patterns:
- постарайся + infinitive (“try hard / make an effort to…”)
- попытайся + infinitive (often sounds more effortful or dramatic than попробуй)
Перезапустить literally means “to start again” (пере- = “re-” + запустить = “to start/launch”). It fits well for restarting a device/program.
A very common alternative in everyday tech Russian is:
- перезагрузить (“to reboot/reload”), e.g. перезагрузить компьютер
Both can be correct; перезагрузить is often the default for computers, while перезапустить is also common (especially for apps/services/processes).
Перезапустить is perfective. After попробуй, perfective is very common when you mean “try to do it once and get a result” (a completed restart).
The imperfective перезапускать would suggest a repeated/ongoing action (“try restarting it repeatedly / try restarting in general”), which is usually not what you mean here.
Его here is the object pronoun “it/him” in the accusative/genitive form for masculine/neuter. It refers back to компьютер (masculine), meaning “restart it.”
You could also repeat the noun:
- ... попробуй перезапустить компьютер. Using его avoids repetition and sounds natural.
Yes: его can be either:
1) an object pronoun: “him/it”
2) a possessive: “his”
In this sentence it’s clearly the object pronoun because it follows a verb that needs a direct object (перезапустить кого/что?). If it were possessive, it would normally modify a noun, like его компьютер (“his computer”).
Yes. Both are correct:
- Если компьютер работает медленно, попробуй перезапустить его.
- Попробуй перезапустить его, если компьютер работает медленно.
The comma remains because it’s still a subordinate если-clause.
Перезапусти его is a more direct instruction: “Restart it.”
Попробуй перезапустить его is softer: “Try restarting it” (suggestion, less forceful, implies it may help but isn’t guaranteed).