Breakdown of Как только он начал её контролировать, она отказалась оправдываться.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
она
she / it (for a feminine noun)
только
only
начать
to begin (perfective)
отказаться
to refuse (pf)
как
as (in comparisons)
контролировать
to control
оправдываться
to make excuses
Questions & Answers about Как только он начал её контролировать, она отказалась оправдываться.
Why do we use the imperfective verb контролировать if he started doing it at a specific moment in the past?
After verbs that express the beginning, continuation, or end of an action (like начал), Russian grammar strictly requires the following verb to be in the imperfective infinitive. This is because you are describing the start of an ongoing process.
Since this lesson covers the reflexive possessive pronoun свой, why don't we use a form of it instead of её here?
The word свой is a possessive pronoun meaning one's own. In this sentence, её is not a possessive word (as it would be in a phrase like her life); it is a direct object pronoun simply meaning her (he started to control her). You only use свой to replace possessive modifiers when they belong to the subject of the sentence.
What does the reflexive suffix -ся add to оправдываться?
Why are the words как and только used together at the start of the sentence?
The combination как только is a fixed expression that translates to as soon as. While как typically means how or like and только means only, putting them together creates a time conjunction used to connect two events that happen in quick succession.
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