Breakdown of Читая текст, мы выписываем неизвестные слова в тетрадь.
тетрадь
notebook
мы
we
текст
text
читать
to read
Questions & Answers about Читая текст, мы выписываем неизвестные слова в тетрадь.
What kind of word is читая and how is it formed here?
Читая is an imperfective verbal adverb (деепричастие). It means "while reading" or "in the process of reading." You form it by taking the "they" form of the present tense verb (читают), dropping the -ют, and adding -я. Because it is imperfective, it shows an action happening at the exact same time as the main verb (выписываем).
Why is there a comma after текст?
In Russian, a verbal adverb and any words attached to it (like its direct object, текст) form a phrase that must always be separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. This is a strict punctuation rule, unlike in English where introductory clauses are sometimes written without commas.
Why use выписываем instead of just пишем?
The prefix вы- means "out" or "out of." While пишем simply means "we write," выписываем specifically means "we write out" or "we extract." It perfectly describes the action of taking specific words out of a text and copying them somewhere else.
Since the notebook is a location, why do we use в тетрадь (accusative) instead of в тетради (prepositional)?