Breakdown of Мы плакали от смеха, когда смотрели комедию.
мы
we
смотреть
to watch / to look at / make sure (in a warning)
когда
when
комедия
comedy
Questions & Answers about Мы плакали от смеха, когда смотрели комедию.
Why do we use от instead of из to mean "from" here?
In Russian, от + Genitive is used for involuntary physical or emotional reactions. Crying from laughter is an uncontrollable physical response, so we use от смеха. If you did something because of a conscious motive or decision (like "out of curiosity"), you would use из.
Why does the word for laughter end in -a (смеха) in this sentence?
The preposition от always requires the Genitive case. The dictionary form is the masculine noun смех (laughter). Since it ends in a consonant, we add -а to make it Genitive.
Why are both verbs in this sentence (плакали, смотрели) in the imperfective aspect?
Both actions were continuous and happening at the exact same time. The imperfective aspect shows that they "were crying" while they "were watching," describing an ongoing background process in the past rather than a completed, one-time event.
Why is it комедию rather than комедия at the end of the sentence?
Комедия is the direct object of the action—it is the thing they were watching. Therefore, it needs to be in the Accusative case. For feminine nouns ending in -я, the Accusative ending is -ю.