Она не нарочно сломала фломастер, он и так уже почти не писал.

Не нарочно means not on purpose or unintentionally.

In this sentence, Она не нарочно сломала фломастер means she did not break the marker deliberately.

It is close in meaning to случайно, but they are not always identical:

• не нарочно = not intentionally
• случайно = accidentally / by chance

Often both work in similar situations, but не нарочно focuses more on the lack of intention, while случайно focuses more on the accidental nature of the event.

For example:

• Я не нарочно! = I didn’t mean to!
• Я случайно уронил чашку. = I accidentally dropped the cup.

So here, не нарочно is natural because the speaker is defending her intent.

Сломала is the perfective past tense of сломать and means broke as a completed result.

Russian aspect matters a lot here:

• ломала (imperfective) would suggest an ongoing process, repeated action, or a less clearly completed event
• сломала (perfective) shows that the marker ended up broken

Since the sentence is about the result — the marker got broken — perfective сломала is the natural choice.

Also, сломала is feminine singular past tense because the subject is она.

In the past tense, Russian verbs agree with the subject in gender and number.

Here the subject is она, so the verb must be feminine singular:

• он сломал = he broke
• она сломала = she broke
• оно сломало = it broke
• они сломали = they broke

So сломала tells you that the subject is feminine.

Because фломастер is the direct object of сломала, it is in the accusative case.

However, фломастер is an inanimate masculine noun, and for inanimate masculine nouns, the accusative singular looks the same as the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: фломастер
• accusative: фломастер

If it were animate, the accusative would usually match the genitive instead.

Он refers back to фломастер.

In Russian, pronouns agree with the grammatical gender of the noun, not with biological sex or natural gender. Since фломастер is a masculine noun, the pronoun is он.

So:

• фломастер = masculine
• therefore он = it in English, even though the Russian word is grammatically masculine

English uses it for objects, but Russian normally uses он / она / оно depending on the noun’s grammatical gender.

In Russian, writing instruments are often said to write when they function properly.

So:

• Ручка пишет. = The pen writes. / The pen works.
• Карандаш плохо пишет. = The pencil writes badly. / The pencil doesn’t write well.
• Фломастер не пишет. = The marker doesn’t write.

This is very natural in Russian. English often prefers work in this context, but Russian commonly uses писать.

So он уже почти не писал means the marker was already barely working.

Here и так means something like already anyway, as it is, or even without that.

In the sentence:

он и так уже почти не писал

the idea is that the marker was already in bad condition before she broke it. So the speaker is saying something like:

• it was already barely writing anyway
• it hardly worked as it was

This phrase often adds the sense that something was true even before the event being discussed.

For example:

• Я и так устал. = I’m tired already as it is.
• У нас и так мало времени. = We already have little time as it is.

Each word adds a specific nuance:

• уже = already
• почти = almost / nearly
• не писал = wasn’t writing / didn’t write

Together, уже почти не писал means:

• it was already almost not writing
• more naturally: it was already barely writing

This combination makes the statement softer and more precise than just не писал.

Compare:

• не писал = it didn’t write / it wasn’t writing
• почти не писал = it barely wrote
• уже почти не писал = it was already barely writing

So the sentence suggests the marker was nearly useless before it got broken.

Because the whole sentence is describing a past situation.

The first clause is in the past:

• Она не нарочно сломала фломастер = She broke the marker unintentionally

The second clause explains the condition of the marker at that time:

• он и так уже почти не писал = it was already barely writing anyway

Using пишет would shift the statement into the present and would not fit the time frame as well.

Писал is imperfective because it describes an ongoing state or repeated functioning in the past, not one completed act.

The sentence is not saying the marker wrote something once. It is describing how well it functioned in general before it broke.

Imperfective is natural for this kind of background description:

• он уже почти не писал = it was already barely writing

A perfective form here would not sound right, because the focus is not on one completed act of writing, but on the marker’s general condition.

The sentence has two closely connected clauses:

• Она не нарочно сломала фломастер
• он и так уже почти не писал

Russian often links such clauses with a comma when the second explains or comments on the first. This kind of structure can feel a bit like English ..., and anyway ... or ..., since ... depending on context.

The second clause gives the reason or justification behind the first clause: breaking the marker was not such a serious matter, because it was already barely working.

So the comma here helps connect two closely related ideas without needing an extra conjunction.