Мы говорим «едва я вошёл, как...» или «едва поезд остановился, как...», когда второе действие начинается почти сразу.

We say “hardly had I come in when...” or “hardly had the train stopped when...”, when the second action begins almost immediately.

Breakdown of Мы говорим «едва я вошёл, как...» или «едва поезд остановился, как...», когда второе действие начинается почти сразу.

• я: I
• говорить: to say
• мы: we
• когда: when

Questions & Answers about Мы говорим «едва я вошёл, как...» или «едва поезд остановился, как...», когда второе действие начинается почти сразу.

What does едва mean grammatically in this pattern?

Here едва is functioning as part of a time-linking construction, not just as the adverb barely.

In едва X, как Y, it introduces the first event and signals that the second event happens almost immediately after it.

A good English equivalent is:

• hardly had X happened when Y happened
• no sooner had X happened than Y happened
• sometimes simply as soon as X happened

So in this structure, think of едва as a trigger for the idea of almost no time gap.

Does как mean how here?

No. In this sentence, как does not mean how.

It is a conjunction that forms the second half of the pattern едва... как....

So:

• едва я вошёл, как он заговорил
  = hardly had I entered when he started talking

Here как is closer to when or part of an English pattern like no sooner... than..., not how.

Do I have to use как, or can I say Едва я вошёл, он...?