Breakdown of По мере того как вырубка дуба растёт, лес исчезает.
лес
forest, wood
расти
to grow
исчезать
to disappear (vanish)
по мере того как
as
вырубка
logging, felling
дуб
oak
Questions & Answers about По мере того как вырубка дуба растёт, лес исчезает.
The current lesson is about prepositions of cause. Does по мере того как mean "because"?
Not exactly. По мере того как translates to "as" or "in proportion as." While it shows a relationship between two events, it specifically highlights that two ongoing processes are happening simultaneously and changing together (as logging increases, the forest disappears). It focuses on parallel progression rather than just a direct cause, though they often overlap in formal texts.
Why do we need того in по мере того как? Can we just say по мере как?
No, you cannot drop того. In formal Russian, many complex conjunctions are built using a noun or preposition that forces a specific case, followed by a pointer word (like тот) in that case, and finally как or что. Here, по мере (in the measure of) requires the Genitive case, so то becomes того.
Why is oak in the Genitive case (дуба) instead of the Accusative? Aren't they cutting the oak?
It is in the Genitive because it modifies the noun вырубка (logging or felling). Just like in English "the logging of oak," Russian uses the Genitive case to link two nouns. If an active verb were used instead of a noun, it would take the Accusative (for example, они рубят дуб - they are cutting the oak).
Both растёт and исчезает are imperfective verbs. Is this required with по мере того как?
Yes, almost always. Because по мере того как specifically describes two processes developing alongside each other over time, you need imperfective verbs in both parts of the sentence to convey that continuous, ongoing change.
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