Breakdown of Как только большие собаки убежали, мальчик улыбнулся.
собака
dog
мальчик
boy
большой
big
как только
as soon as
улыбнуться
to smile (perfective)
убежать
to run away
Questions & Answers about Как только большие собаки убежали, мальчик улыбнулся.
Why do we use the perfective verb убежали after как только?
The phrase как только (as soon as) emphasizes that one action finishes immediately before another begins. Because the dogs completely finished running away before the boy smiled, we must use the perfective verb убежали.
What does the prefix у- add to the verb бежать (to run)?
The prefix у- usually indicates movement away from a starting point. Added to бежать, it creates the perfective verb убежать, meaning to run away or to depart.
Why does улыбнулся end with -ся instead of -сь?
For reflexive verbs, the ending depends on the letter before it. You use -ся after a consonant and -сь after a vowel. Because the masculine past tense ends in the consonant л, it takes -ся (улыбнулся). If the subject were feminine, it would end in a vowel and take -сь (улыбнулась).
Why does the adjective большие end in -ие rather than the standard plural ending -ые?
This is because of the spelling rule that says you can never write the letter ы after ш. Instead, you must use и, which changes the plural ending from -ые to -ие.
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