Word
От ужаса он был такой бледный, что мы испугались.
Meaning
He was so pale from terror that we got scared.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of От ужаса он был такой бледный, что мы испугались.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
мы
we
быть
to be
что
that (conjunction)
Questions & Answers about От ужаса он был такой бледный, что мы испугались.
Why is такой used here instead of так to mean "so"?
Even though we translate it as "so pale", бледный is a full adjective. In Russian, you must use такой with nouns and full adjectives. To use так, you would need the short-form adjective instead: он был так бледен.
Why use от to say "from terror"? Could I use из?
When describing an involuntary physical reaction to an emotion or state (like turning pale from fear, or shaking from cold), you use от followed by the Genitive case. You use из + Genitive for conscious motives, like doing something "out of curiosity".
Why use the verb испугались instead of боялись?
Испугались is a perfective verb meaning "got scared" or "became frightened" — it focuses on the sudden result of seeing how pale he was. If you wanted to describe an ongoing state of fear ("we were afraid"), you would use the imperfective verb боялись.
Is the comma before что strictly necessary?
Yes. In Russian, subordinate clauses (like this result clause starting with что) must always be separated from the main clause by a comma, without exception.