Разве ты не чувствуешь, как пахнет укроп, когда борщ почти готов?

Разве is a particle that adds the feeling of surprise, doubt, or mild disbelief.

In this sentence, it suggests something like:

• Don’t you really smell it?
• Can’t you smell it?
• Surely you can smell it?

So разве makes the question more emotional than a plain neutral question.

Without разве:

• Ты не чувствуешь, как пахнет укроп...?
  = a more straightforward Don’t you smell how the dill smells...?

With разве:

• Разве ты не чувствуешь, как пахнет укроп...?
  = What, you don’t smell it?

Russian often uses negative questions the same way English does: to suggest that the speaker expects the answer to be yes.

So:

• Разве ты не чувствуешь...?
  means something like
  Can’t you smell it? Surely you can.

The speaker probably assumes the smell is obvious.

This is not just a factual question. It carries the idea:

• It smells so strong — how can you not notice?

Yes, чувствовать literally means to feel, but in Russian it is also commonly used for sensing smells.

So:

• чувствовать запах = to smell / to sense a smell
• чувствуешь, как пахнет...? = do you smell how ... smells?

This is normal Russian.

English separates these ideas more:

• feel usually for touch or emotion
• smell for odors

Russian чувствовать can cover a broader idea of perceiving with the senses.

Yes, literally как means how, and the phrase is literally:

• how dill smells

But in natural English, we would usually say:

• how dill smells
• the smell of dill
• that smell of dill

So Russian uses как пахнет... in places where English might use a slightly different structure.

The sentence is not asking in what way does dill smell? in an analytical sense. It is more like:

• Don’t you smell that dill aroma...?

This is a very important distinction.

In this sentence:

• как пахнет укроп
  = how dill smells
  Here укроп is the subject. The dill itself is giving off the smell.

But compare:

• пахнет укропом
  = it smells like dill / it smells of dill
  Here укропом is in the instrumental case, showing what kind of smell something has.

So the difference is:

• пахнет укроп = the dill smells
• пахнет укропом = it smells of dill

In your sentence, the meaning is specifically about noticing the aroma coming from the dill in the borscht.

Пахнет is 3rd person singular, because its subject is укроп, which is singular.

So the structure is:

• укроп пахнет = dill smells

Russian often allows the verb to come before the subject, especially in subordinate clauses:

• как пахнет укроп

This is completely normal. English would more naturally say:

• how dill smells

Russian word order is more flexible, so пахнет укроп does not sound strange.

In the present tense, Russian usually omits the verb to be.

So:

• борщ почти готов
  literally = borscht almost ready naturally = the borscht is almost ready

This is one of the most basic features of Russian grammar.

Compare:

• Он дома = He is at home
• Суп горячий = The soup is hot
• Борщ почти готов = The borscht is almost ready

No present-tense is/am/are is needed.

Почти готов means almost ready or almost done.

• почти = almost
• готов = ready

With food, готов often means:

• done cooking
• ready to serve

So here:

• когда борщ почти готов
  = when the borscht is almost ready / almost done

Because both как пахнет укроп and когда борщ почти готов are subordinate clauses.

Russian punctuation usually separates subordinate clauses with commas more consistently than English.

Here the sentence breaks down like this:

• Разве ты не чувствуешь,
  main clause
• как пахнет укроп,
  subordinate clause explaining what you sense
• когда борщ почти готов?
  time clause

So the commas are required by standard Russian punctuation.

Yes. Russian word order is flexible, though different orders can sound more neutral, more expressive, or place emphasis in different spots.

The given order is natural:

• Разве ты не чувствуешь, как пахнет укроп, когда борщ почти готов?

But Russian could also say things like:

• Разве ты не чувствуешь, когда борщ почти готов, как пахнет укроп?
• Неужели ты не чувствуешь, как пахнет укроп, когда борщ почти готов?

These are possible, but the original sentence is smooth and idiomatic.

In general, the original order presents the smell first and then adds the time context.

Ты is the informal singular you.

So the speaker is talking to:

• one person
• in an informal setting
• probably a friend, family member, partner, or someone close

If the speaker wanted to be polite or formal, they would say:

• Разве вы не чувствуете, как пахнет укроп, когда борщ почти готов?

That would mean the same thing, but with formal you.

Because the sentence is about an ongoing perception, not a completed one-time result.

• чувствовать is imperfective
• it fits meanings like feel, sense, be aware of

The speaker is asking whether the other person is experiencing the smell at that moment.

A perfective verb would suggest a completed event like noticed once or managed to perceive, which is not the main idea here.

So не чувствуешь is exactly what Russian normally uses.

A few natural translations are:

• Can’t you smell the dill when the borscht is almost ready?
• Don’t you smell how the dill smells when the borscht is almost done?
• Can’t you smell that dill aroma when the borscht is nearly ready?

A more literal version is:

• Don’t you feel how dill smells when the borscht is almost ready?

But that sounds unnatural in English, so smell is the best translation for чувствуешь here.