Breakdown of После того как преступника освободили из тюрьмы, он уехал в другой город.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
город
city
в
in / to (direction)
из
out of
другой
other
уехать
to leave (by vehicle, pf)
преступник
criminal
после того как
after (conjunction)
освободить
to release
тюрьма
the prison
Questions & Answers about После того как преступника освободили из тюрьмы, он уехал в другой город.
Why use после того как here instead of just the word после?
The word после on its own is a preposition, so it must be followed by a noun (like после тюрьмы - after prison). When you want to say 'after' and follow it with an entire clause containing a verb, you must use the conjunction phrase после того как.
The English translation says 'the criminal was released,' but освободили is the plural 'they released.' Where is the word for 'they'?
Russian often drops the pronoun они (they) to create an indefinite-personal sentence. This is the most common way to translate English passive voice when the person doing the action doesn't matter. It literally means '(they) released the criminal,' which we translate smoothly as 'the criminal was released.'
If преступник (the criminal) is the one being released, why does it have the ending -а (преступника)?
Even though it translates as the subject in the English passive sentence, in the Russian sentence it is the direct object of the verb освободили. Because преступник is an animate masculine noun (a living person), its accusative case takes the same ending as its genitive case (-а).
Why does the sentence use уехал instead of поехал for 'left'?
Verbs of motion use prefixes to add specific meaning. The prefix у- emphasizes the act of leaving a place, moving away, or departing (often for a long time or permanently). Поехал just means he 'set off' or 'started driving,' without that strong focus on abandoning his previous location.
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