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- "А теперь объясни это маме."
19 Comments
Сейчас is like English "right now", something is happening at this moment in time. Теперь is used more to contrast with another point in time, things were one way before, but they're different now. In this sentence, rather than meaning you need to do this action right now, the English suggests that something, probably bad, has happened, which now needs to be explained to Mom, as opposed to before when it hadn't happened, so теперь is used. There's better explanations than that around, if you search discussion.
liofla
1222
I wrote "now explain this to mom" and it was rejected. Is the nuance really that important here? If so, how would you translate my version in Russian?