Папа почувствовал запах газа и сразу проверил, нет ли утечки.

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Breakdown of Папа почувствовал запах газа и сразу проверил, нет ли утечки.

• проверить: to check
• папа: the dad
• сразу: immediately

Questions & Answers about Папа почувствовал запах газа и сразу проверил, нет ли утечки.

Why is it Папа and not папа? Does the capital letter matter?

Yes. Here Папа is capitalized because it is the first word of the sentence.

In Russian, папа is normally written with a lowercase letter, just like dad in English when it is used as a common noun. You would only capitalize it at the start of a sentence, or sometimes in very personal writing styles.

So in the middle of a sentence, you would usually write:

Мой папа почувствовал запах газа.

Why is it почувствовал, not чувствовал?

Почувствовал is a perfective past-tense verb. It means something like noticed / felt / sensed at a particular moment.

That fits this sentence well, because the idea is:

• he suddenly detected the smell
• then he immediately checked for a leak

If you used чувствовал, it would usually suggest an ongoing state, more like was smelling / was feeling something over a period of time.

So:

• почувствовал запах газа = he noticed the smell of gas
• чувствовал запах газа = he was smelling gas / he could smell gas

Why is it запах газа? What case is газа?