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I heard the following phrase in one media advertisement:

Глядя на нас, сразу понятно, что я ... , а он ... .

Subconsciously I doubt if it is grammatically correct phrase.

Could you clarify it please?

Баян Купи-ка
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VisioN
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6 Answers6

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This form is incorrect.

Rosenthal et al., СППЛР, 212.1.2:

Если же в безличном предложении нет инфинитива, к которому мог бы относиться деепричастный оборот, то употребление последнего стилистически неоправданно, например: Уезжая из родного города, мне стало грустно; Прочитав вторично рукопись, редактору показалось, что она нуждается в серьезной доработке.

Correct form would be:

При взгляде на нас сразу понятно, что я …

or

Глядя на нас, можно сразу понять, что я …

Quassnoi
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  • Как мне кажется Розенталь говорит здесь скорее о стиле, чем о грамматике. – Alex Petrov Nov 29 '12 at 19:02
  • @AlexPetrov: you believe this form to be grammatical? – Quassnoi Nov 29 '12 at 20:49
  • in this very quote you provided, Rosental says that using this construction is questionable not from the grammar point of view, not from the stylistic point of view.

    And in coloquial speech you can hear such constructions very very often from people whose first and only language is Russian.

     – Alex Petrov Nov 29 '12 at 22:45
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    Just consulted my wife who has Ph.D. in Russian phylology. She says "стилистически коряво и стоит переформулировать, но грубой ошибки здесь не вижу". – Alex Petrov Nov 29 '12 at 22:46
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    Глядя на Х, смотря по Х, не смотря на Х, не глядя на Х are idioms, common rules do not apply. – Anixx Jan 16 '15 at 23:31
  • You say this form is incorrect, but that claim is not supported by your citation, which only says стилистически неоправданно, stylistically unsound. So can you back up that claim in some way? – Omar and Lorraine Oct 29 '18 at 10:56
  • @Wilson: Zherebilo, "Словарь лингвистических терминов": ДЕЕПРИЧАСТИЕ — … знаменательная неизменяемая часть речи, обозначающая действие как признак другого действия и выражающая это значение за счет своей неизменяемости и семантической зависимости от глагола-сказуемого и имени-субъекта действия-подлежащего. For the adverbial participle to work, you should have an agent and an action. The agent might be implied (similar to English impersonal pronoun "one" which Russian lacks), but the action should be there. There is no action in глядя на нас, сразу понятно. – Quassnoi Oct 29 '18 at 23:36
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Being grammatically invalid, people have been using constructs like that anyway*. Even native speakers get it wrong from time to time.

Some very famous authors did it, too - to attract your attention, as in:

Поселившись теперь в деревне, его мечта и идеал были в том, чтобы воскресить ту форму жизни, которая была при деде (Л. Н. Толстой)

or in a direct speech - to hint at a poor command of the Russian grammar on the part of the speaker:

"Подъезжая к сией станции и глядя на природу в окно, у меня слетела шляпа" (А. П. Чехов)

P.S. Useful references: one, two.

* Yes, I structured the sentence incorrectly, with the idea to illustrate a similar mistake in English.
Sergey Kalinichenko
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    Constructs similar to Tolstoy's quote were quite popular in XIX's literature and are believed to be French calques. – Quassnoi Nov 28 '12 at 05:11
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No, such a construction is absolutely grammatically INCORRECT. The sentence will be correct if the participial construction coinсides with the subject

Lizmanny
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    Welcome to Russian.SE. Please refrain from repeating existing answers unless you are expanding or elaborating upon them. – Aleks G Nov 30 '12 at 08:22
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Well, I'm agree "This form is incorrect", but ... a lot of people saying this way. So yes, you can use it, but shouldn't, especially if don't want other think you're an ignorant man.

Sergey Lishak
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    Thank you for participation. However since there are several similar answers it is better to upvote an existing one. – Artemix Jan 13 '15 at 17:19
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It's absolutely grammatically correct. It's "From looking at us, it is absolutely clear [for him/her/them] that I ... and he ..."

Yellow Sky
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I'm Russian and this sounds correct to me. At the very least Russian-speaking people often say so. It might be not entirely correct from the formal grammar point of view, but colloquially it is perfectly fine to use this construction.

Alex Petrov
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  • Please read the question carefully before answering. The OP is not asking whether this phrase is used, but rather whether it's grammatically correct. – Aleks G Nov 30 '12 at 08:21