Word
Новая грамматическая тема: конструкция «едва ..., как ...» помогает сказать, что одно действие произошло сразу после другого.
Meaning
New grammar topic: the construction “едва ..., как ...” helps say that one action happened immediately after another.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Новая грамматическая тема: конструкция «едва ..., как ...» помогает сказать, что одно действие произошло сразу после другого.
новый
new
сказать
to say
грамматический
grammatical
что
that
Questions & Answers about Новая грамматическая тема: конструкция «едва ..., как ...» помогает сказать, что одно действие произошло сразу после другого.
How is the construction едва ..., как ... built?
It is a two-part sentence pattern:
- едва + clause 1
- как + clause 2
It is used when the second action happens immediately after the first one.
A typical example:
- Едва он вошёл, как зазвонил телефон.
This pattern is similar to English hardly had he entered when the phone rang or as soon as he entered, the phone rang.
Does едва normally mean barely? Why does it work differently here?
Yes. On its own, едва often means barely / hardly:
- Я едва вижу. = I can barely see.
But in the fixed construction едва ..., как ..., it has a more grammatical function and means something like:
- hardly ... when ...
- as soon as ...
So the word keeps its original flavor of hardly, but in this pattern it expresses immediate succession of events.
Why are there commas in едва ..., как ...?