Breakdown of Едва мама открыла контейнер, как все начали есть шашлык.
есть
to eat
открыть
to open
начать
to begin
все
everyone
Questions & Answers about Едва мама открыла контейнер, как все начали есть шашлык.
What does едва mean here?
In this sentence, едва means something like hardly / barely, but in the full pattern едва ..., как ... it is best translated as as soon as or no sooner ... than.
So the idea is:
- Едва мама открыла контейнер, как ...
- As soon as / No sooner had Mom opened the container, than ...
It emphasizes how quickly the second action happened after the first one.
Why is как used after the comma?
This is a common Russian construction:
- едва ..., как ...
It links two actions very tightly in time. The second action happens immediately after the first.
A rough English parallel is:
- No sooner had X happened than Y happened
So here:
- Едва мама открыла контейнер, как все начали есть шашлык.
means that right after the container was opened, everyone started eating.
Russian also often uses similar patterns such as:
- как только ...
- лишь только ...
But едва ..., как ... sounds a bit more literary or expressive.
Why is it открыла and not открыл or открыли?