Breakdown of Сигнал на телефоне то исчезает, то мигает.
телефон
phone
на
on, at / by (transport) / to (a place) / to (in answer to)
то ..., то ...
now ... now ... (alternating actions)
исчезать
to disappear (vanish)
Questions & Answers about Сигнал на телефоне то исчезает, то мигает.
The translation says "either... or...", but doesn't то ..., то ... mean "first..., then..."?
You're right to notice that! While "either... or..." is sometimes used in English translations to sound natural, то ..., то ... specifically means alternating actions: "first it disappears, then it blinks" or "now it disappears, now it blinks." It implies the signal keeps switching back and forth between these two states. If it were strictly one or the other with no switching, you would use или ..., или ... instead.
Why are the verbs исчезает and мигает in the imperfective aspect here?
Because the conjunction то ..., то ... describes actions that alternate and repeat over time. Since the signal keeps disappearing and blinking over and over, you must use imperfective verbs to show this ongoing, repetitive process.
Why is it на телефоне (on the phone) and not в телефоне (in the phone)?
In Russian, when talking about a screen, display, or a signal showing up on a device, we usually use на (on) with the prepositional case. You would use в (in) if you were talking about the internal hardware or data stored deep inside the phone's memory.
Is the comma before the second то mandatory?
Yes! In Russian, whenever you use a repeating conjunction like то ..., то ... (as well as и ..., и ... or или ..., или ...), you must place a comma before the second part to separate the connected items.