Breakdown of Получив уведомление, он сразу отвлёкся.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
получить
to receive (perfective)
сразу
immediately
уведомление
notification
отвлечься
to get distracted (perfective)
Questions & Answers about Получив уведомление, он сразу отвлёкся.
Why must the subject он be the one who received the notification here?
This is the most important rule of Russian verbal adverbs (деепричастия) like получив: the action in the verbal adverb must be performed by the subject of the main clause. Since он (he) is the subject of отвлёкся (got distracted), he has to be the one who received the notification. You cannot use this structure if one person receives the message and a different person gets distracted.
Why use получив instead of получая?
Получив is a perfective verbal adverb, translating to 'having received.' It is used to show that this action was completely finished before the main action (отвлёкся) happened. If you used the imperfective получая ('while receiving'), it would mean he got distracted during the continuous process of receiving it.
Why does the sentence use the reflexive отвлёкся instead of just отвлёк?
The suffix -ся makes the verb intransitive, meaning the subject is experiencing the change of state. Отвлёкся means 'he got distracted.' If you used the non-reflexive отвлёк, you would need a direct object because it means he distracted someone else (for example, он отвлёк её - he distracted her).
Is the comma after уведомление mandatory?
Yes. In Russian, verbal adverb phrases (деепричастные обороты) like Получив уведомление must always be separated from the rest of the sentence by commas, no matter where they are placed.
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