Breakdown of Судя по почерку, он понял, что это она, и улыбнулся.
это
this / it is
и
and
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
она
she / it (for a feminine noun)
что
that (conjunction)
понять
to understand (perfective)
улыбнуться
to smile (perfective)
судя по
judging by
почерк
handwriting
Questions & Answers about Судя по почерку, он понял, что это она, и улыбнулся.
Why is the word почерк (handwriting) in the Dative case here?
The phrase судя по means 'judging by' and it strictly requires the Dative case. Even though судя is technically an adverbial participle from the verb судить (to judge), the combination судя по acts as a fixed preposition of inference. Therefore, почерк changes to its Dative form, почерку.
The English translation says 'it WAS her', so why does the Russian use the present tense это она?
This is a classic difference between English and Russian! English uses 'sequence of tenses,' shifting verbs to the past tense after phrases like 'he realized.' Russian does not do this. Instead, Russian keeps the tense from the perspective of the person at that exact moment. At that moment, his thought was 'It IS her,' so Russian uses the present tense это она inside the что clause.
Both понял and улыбнулся are perfective verbs. Could we use imperfective verbs here instead?
Using imperfective verbs like понимал or улыбался would change the meaning. Perfective verbs show that an action was successfully completed. Having two perfective verbs in a row (понял, then улыбнулся) tells us these were consecutive, finished events: first he had the sudden realization, and immediately after, he smiled.
Is the comma after почерку strictly necessary?
Yes, it is mandatory. The phrase Судя по почерку functions as an adverbial participle phrase (often called a gerund phrase in English learning materials). In Russian punctuation, these phrases must always be separated from the main sentence by commas, regardless of whether they appear at the beginning, middle, or end of the sentence.
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