Breakdown of С одной стороны, это хорошая экономия времени, а с другой — устройство часто ломается.
это
this / it is
а
and (contrastive)
хороший
good
часто
often
Questions & Answers about С одной стороны, это хорошая экономия времени, а с другой — устройство часто ломается.
Why is there a dash instead of the word стороны after с другой?
In Russian, it is very common to drop the second стороны to avoid repetition, just like saying "on the other" in English. The dash visually replaces the omitted word. You could absolutely say а с другой стороны, but dropping the noun is very natural and highly typical of everyday speech.
Why do we use the conjunction а here instead of но?
While both can translate to "but", а is the standard conjunction used with this specific correlative pair. It acts as a pivot to contrast two coexisting facts or perspectives, rather than introducing a sharp contradiction. You will almost always see а с другой стороны rather than но с другой стороны.
Why is "time saver" translated as экономия времени?
In Russian, the concept of saving time (not wasting it) is expressed with the root for "economy" (экономия or the verb экономить). You cannot use words like спасение (saving a life or rescuing) or сохранение (saving a file or preserving), because those apply to entirely different contexts.
Why does the verb ломается have the reflexive -ся ending here?
The base verb ломать means to actively break something else. By adding the reflexive suffix -ся, the verb becomes intransitive, indicating that the device breaks down on its own. It is important to remember that this reflexive form is the standard way to talk about machines breaking, as it removes the active subject doing the breaking.