Breakdown of Он улыбнулся из вежливости, а не из любопытства.
не
not
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
а
and (contrastive)
из
out of
улыбнуться
to smile (perfective)
любопытство
curiosity
вежливость
politeness
Questions & Answers about Он улыбнулся из вежливости, а не из любопытства.
Why is из used here instead of от to mean "out of"?
In Russian, из followed by the Genitive case is used when the cause of an action is a conscious, internal motive or character trait. He actively chose to smile because it was the polite thing to do. If the reaction were an involuntary physical or emotional one (like shaking from cold or jumping from surprise), you would use от instead.
Both nouns are in the Genitive case after из. Why do they have different endings (-и vs -а)?
They belong to different noun genders. The dictionary form for politeness is вежливость, which is a feminine noun ending in a soft sign. In the Genitive case, that soft sign changes to -и, making вежливости. Curiosity is любопытство, a neuter noun ending in -о. Its Genitive ending is -а, making любопытства.
Why do we use а не here instead of и не for "and not"?
The conjunction а is used to show a direct contrast between two things. Because the sentence contrasts the actual reason he smiled (politeness) with the false reason (curiosity), а is required to highlight this "this, rather than that" relationship. Using и would just link two separate facts without contrasting them.
The verb is улыбнулся. Does the -ся ending mean he smiled at himself?
No, it is just a required part of the verb. The dictionary form for "to smile" is улыбаться (imperfective) or улыбнуться (perfective). Like several Russian verbs expressing facial expressions or states of being, it always carries the reflexive -ся ending even though the action isn't being done "to oneself."
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