Breakdown of Читая этот текст, он понимал, что мне было очень трудно.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
текст
text
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
очень
very
читать
to read
понимать
to understand
трудный
difficult
быть
to be
мне
to me
что
that (conjunction)
Questions & Answers about Читая этот текст, он понимал, что мне было очень трудно.
How do we form читая, and what exactly does it mean here?
Читая is an imperfective verbal adverb. You form it by taking the "they" form of the present tense (читают), dropping the -ют, and adding -я. It describes an ongoing background action happening at the exact same time as the main verb (понимал), so it translates to "while reading" or "as he was reading."
Who is doing the reading in this sentence? Can it be "me" since the second part says мне было?
The person doing the action in a verbal adverb must ALWAYS be the same as the subject of the main verb it attaches to. The main subject in that first clause is он (he), so he is the one reading. It cannot be мне (me).
The sentence is in the past tense (понимал). Does the form of читая change to show that it happened in the past?
No, imperfective verbal adverbs like читая do not change for tense. They simply show that the action happens at the exact same time as the main verb. Because the main verb (понимал) is in the past tense, читая automatically takes on that past context: "while he was reading."
Why is it мне было очень трудно instead of something like я был очень трудный?
To express how a person feels or experiences a state (like being cold, sad, or finding something difficult), Russian uses an impersonal construction. The person experiencing it goes into the Dative case (мне), followed by the neuter past tense verb было and an adverb (трудно). Literally, it means "to me it was very difficult." If you said я был очень трудный, it would mean "I was a very difficult person."
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