Breakdown of Стоило нам начать тушить пожар, как вода закончилась, так что мы отступили.
вода
water
мы
we
начать
to begin (perfective)
закончиться
to end (perfective)
отступить
to retreat
пожар
fire (destructive event)
как
than (in 'no sooner ... than')
так что
so / with the result that (conjunction)
стоить
one had only to (as soon as)
тушить
to extinguish
Questions & Answers about Стоило нам начать тушить пожар, как вода закончилась, так что мы отступили.
How does the стоило ... как construction work here, and why is стоило in the neuter form?
This is the fixed immediate trigger construction: стоило + Dative + Infinitive + как + Past tense clause. Because the first clause is impersonal (it has no grammatical subject in the nominative case), the verb стоило takes the default neuter past tense form. The logical subject goes into the dative case (нам) to show for whom the action was just enough to trigger the next event.
Why is тушить (to extinguish) in the imperfective aspect when everything else in the sentence describes completed actions?
In Russian, "phase verbs" that indicate the start, continuation, or end of an action, like начать (to begin), must always be followed by an imperfective infinitive. Even though the act of beginning is completed here (perfective начать), the action being begun (тушить) is viewed grammatically as a continuous process.
I learned that закончиться means "to finish" or "to end". Does it also mean "to run out"?
Yes! When applied to physical consumables like вода (water), деньги (money), or бензин (gasoline), закончиться is the standard, everyday way to express that the resource was depleted or "ran out".
Could I use поэтому instead of так что here to mean "so"?
You could, but they structure the sentence a bit differently. Так что is a conjunction that attaches a subordinate result clause directly to the main sentence. Поэтому is an adverb meaning "therefore" and feels slightly heavier, usually starting a brand new independent clause or a new sentence altogether.
Why use пожар for "fire" instead of огонь?
Пожар specifically refers to an uncontrolled, destructive fire, like a house fire or forest fire. Огонь is the general word for "fire" or "flame" as an element, such as the fire in a stove or on a candle. Since they are acting as firefighters here, пожар is the exact right word.
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