Breakdown of Актёры заболели, так что они перенесли спектакль.
они
they
актёр
actor
спектакль
performance
перенести
to postpone (perfective)
заболеть
to get sick
так что
so / with the result that (conjunction)
Questions & Answers about Актёры заболели, так что они перенесли спектакль.
Can I split так что with a comma depending on emphasis, like I sometimes can with потому что?
No. While так что introduces a factual consequence (so / with the result that), it acts as a single, indivisible conjunction here. The comma must always go before так, and you can never put a comma between так and что.
Why use the perfective заболели here instead of the imperfective болели?
The perfective заболели specifically means "got sick" or "fell ill." It focuses on the sudden change of state which is the exact event that triggered the consequence. If you used the imperfective болели (were sick), it would merely describe an ongoing background state rather than the incident that forced the postponement.
How does the verb перенесли mean "postponed"?
The perfective verb перенести literally means "to carry across" or "to carry over" (combining the prefix пере- for "across/over" and the root нести for "to carry"). In the context of time and scheduling, "carrying an event over" to another date is how Russian expresses postponing or rescheduling it.
Could I just use поэтому (therefore / that's why) instead of так что in this sentence?
Yes, you could say Актёры заболели, поэтому они перенесли спектакль, and the meaning would be nearly identical. The difference is mainly grammatical: поэтому is an adverb linking two independent clauses, whereas так что is a conjunction that turns the second half into a dependent consequence clause. For practical purposes here, they are interchangeable.
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