Breakdown of Судья прочитал приговор, после того как полиция нашла новые доказательства.
новый
new
прочитать
to read (perfective)
найти
to find
полиция
police
после того как
after (conjunction)
доказательство
the evidence
судья
the judge
приговор
the verdict
Questions & Answers about Судья прочитал приговор, после того как полиция нашла новые доказательства.
Why is 'after' translated as the three-word phrase после того как here instead of just после?
You use после (a preposition) when it is followed by a noun, like после обеда (after lunch). But in this sentence, 'after' introduces a whole new clause with its own subject and verb (полиция нашла). To connect two full clauses, Russian uses the conjunction после того как (literally 'after of that how').
I have seen commas split this phrase before (like после того, как). Why is the comma before the whole phrase here?
Both ways are correct! Placing the comma before после (as in this sentence) treats the phrase as a single block and puts equal focus on the whole action. If you split it into ...после того, как..., it puts special emphasis on the exact time the action happened. At B1 level, placing the comma before the whole phrase is the most common and safest choice.
Both прочитал and нашла are perfective verbs. Does the tense or aspect change because one action happened before the other?
No, Russian does not have a past perfect tense like English ('had found'). Instead, the sequence of events is already clear from the phrase после того как. Both actions are completed, single events in the past, so they both simply use the perfective past tense.
Судья ends in -я, which usually marks a feminine noun. Why is the verb masculine (прочитал)?
Судья (judge) is a special noun that declines with feminine endings but takes the grammatical gender of the specific person it refers to. Since the judge here is a man, the verb takes the masculine form прочитал. If the judge were a woman, the sentence would start with Судья прочитала.
The English translation says 'new evidence' (singular), but новые доказательства is plural. Why?
In English, 'evidence' is an uncountable noun, so it is always singular. In Russian, доказательство (a piece of evidence or proof) is a regular countable noun. Since the police found multiple pieces of proof, it is used in the plural (доказательства) along with the plural adjective новые.
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