Breakdown of Увидев неизведанный берег на горизонте, команда обрадовалась.
на
on, at / by (transport) / to (a place) / to (in answer to)
берег
shore, bank
команда
team
увидеть
to see, to catch sight of (perfective)
обрадоваться
to become glad
горизонт
horizon
неизведанный
unexplored
Questions & Answers about Увидев неизведанный берег на горизонте, команда обрадовалась.
Why do we use увидев instead of видя here?
Увидев is a perfective verbal adverb meaning 'having seen.' We use the perfective aspect because the team completed the action of spotting the shore before they rejoiced. Видя is imperfective ('while seeing') and would imply the rejoicing was happening simultaneously with the ongoing process of seeing.
Could we change the main subject to something else, like 'Having seen the shore, a cheer went up'?
No, Russian has a strict rule for verbal adverbs like увидев: the subject of the main clause must be the entity performing the action in the verbal adverb phrase. Since the team (команда) did the seeing, the team must be the subject of the main sentence.
What is the root of the word неизведанный?
It stems from the old Russian verb ведать, meaning 'to know.' You can spot this same root in words like разведка (reconnaissance) or even медведь (literally 'honey-knower' or bear). Combined with the negative prefix не- and the prefix из- (indicating completeness), неизведанный translates to 'unexplored' or 'uncharted.'
Why does обрадовалась end with a reflexive suffix here?
The non-reflexive verb обрадовать means to make someone else happy (for example, 'the sight made the team happy'). By adding the reflexive suffix -ся (which becomes -сь after a vowel), the verb changes to 'to get happy' or 'to rejoice' themselves. Note that if the sentence mentioned what they were rejoicing at, that object would need to be in the Dative case.
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