Breakdown of Когда будет звонок, студенты перестанут двигаться по коридору.
Questions & Answers about Когда будет звонок, студенты перестанут двигаться по коридору.
All of these are possible in Russian, but they differ in style and nuance.
Когда будет звонок
- Literally: “When there will be a bell.”
- This is very common and neutral in school context: it refers to the scheduled bell that marks the end of a lesson or break.
- Grammatically it’s like saying “When (there) is the bell (time)”, but because it’s future, you get будет.
Когда звонок будет
- Also grammatically correct, but sounds less natural here.
- Word order with звонок будет tends to sound more like “when the bell (event) will be”, e.g. about an event rather than the standard school bell time.
Когда прозвенит (зазвенит) звонок
- Literally: “When the bell rings (starts ringing).”
- This focuses on the action of the bell ringing and is also very common.
- You could absolutely say:
- Когда прозвенит звонок, студенты перестанут двигаться по коридору.
So Когда будет звонок is a natural, slightly more “schedule-oriented” way to say “when it’s bell time,” while Когда прозвенит звонок is “when the bell rings.” Both are normal in this context.
Russian and English handle time in “when”-clauses differently:
English:
- When the bell rings, the students will stop…
- Subordinate clause (when the bell rings) uses present simple, even though it’s future in meaning.
Russian:
- Когда будет звонок, студенты перестанут…
- Both clauses use future:
- будет звонок – future
- перестанут – future
In Russian, if the whole situation is in the future, you normally keep future tense in the когда-clause as well.
So you don’t say:
- ✗ Когда есть звонок, студенты перестанут… for this meaning.
You can remember:
- English: “When + present, will + future.”
- Russian: Когда + future, future.
Перестанут is:
- Verb: перестать (perfective) – “to stop doing something (once, as a result).”
- Form: 3rd person plural future – они перестанут = “they will stop.”
Structure here:
- перестанут двигаться = “they will stop moving.”
Why not будут переставать?
- переставать is the imperfective partner of перестать.
- будут переставать would be a long, repeated, or process-like “will be stopping (again and again / over time),” which is odd here.
- We want one clear change of state: they are moving → they stop.
That’s exactly what перестать (perfective) expresses.
So перестанут is the natural choice for a one-time stopping.
Each option would sound different:
перестанут двигаться
- двигаться = “to move” (as a process, any direction, just being in motion).
- Neutral, focuses on any movement: walking, running, milling around.
- Very natural in this sentence.
перестанут движение
- Not correct: перестать usually takes an infinitive verb, not a noun.
- You say перестать делать (что-то), not “перестать делание”.
перестанут ходить по коридору
- ходить = to go/walk (multidirectional, habitual).
- перестанут ходить по коридору = “they will stop walking in the corridor (altogether, as a habit).”
- This sounds more like a permanent change in behavior (“from now on they won’t walk there”).
In the given sentence, we want: “When the bell goes, they stop moving (right then).”
So перестанут двигаться is the best match.
- двигать (что?) – “to move (something)” – transitive:
- двигать стол – “to move the table.”
- двигаться – “to move (oneself), to be in motion” – intransitive, reflexive:
- Люди двигались по коридору. – “People were moving along the corridor.”
In our sentence:
- The students are moving themselves, not pushing objects.
- So you need the reflexive двигаться:
студенты перестанут двигаться – “the students will stop moving.”
Using двигать here would change the meaning to “stop moving (something)” and would be ungrammatical without an object.
Both are grammatically possible, but they highlight different things:
по коридору (Dative)
- Literally “along the corridor” or “through the corridor.”
- Emphasizes motion along a path.
- With verbs of motion or movement (идти, ходить, бегать, двигаться), по + dative is very common:
- ходить по парку – walk around the park.
- бегать по пляжу – run along the beach.
- So двигаться по коридору = “to move along/through the corridor.”
в коридоре (Prepositional)
- Literally “in the corridor.”
- Focuses on location, not the path.
- двигаться в коридоре is possible, but sounds more like “to be moving (somewhere) in the corridor,” less about travelling along it.
Because the idea is of students moving along the corridor space, по коридору is the natural choice.
Коридору is in the dative singular.
The preposition по can govern different cases depending on meaning and dialect, but for movement along/through a space, standard Russian uses dative:
- идти по улице – to walk along the street.
- бегать по лесу – to run through the forest.
- двигаться по коридору – to move along the corridor.
So the pattern is:
- по + dative to express motion over/along a surface or within an area.
Студенты is:
- Noun: студент – “student” (male or mixed group; can also be used generically).
- Form: nominative plural – студенты.
- Role: subject of the main clause:
- студенты перестанут двигаться…
In Russian, the subject of the sentence stands in the nominative case.
So:
- Singular: студент перестанет двигаться…
- Plural: студенты перестанут двигаться…
Yes, structurally it’s similar to English “there will be a bell”.
- будет is the 3rd person singular future of быть – “to be.”
- With быть, the thing that “exists/happens” is usually in nominative:
- Будет экзамен. – “There will be an exam.”
- Будет дождь. – “There will be rain.”
- Будет звонок. – “There will be a bell (ringing / bell time).”
So звонок is the grammatical subject of будет and therefore nominative: звонок, not звонка or something else.
No, not with this future meaning.
- перестают is present tense: “(they) are stopping / (they) stop (habitually).”
- In Russian, when you talk about a specific future event (this particular bell that will ring later), you normally use future tense in both clauses:
- Когда будет звонок, студенты перестанут двигаться…
If you used перестают, it would sound like you are stating a general rule in a somewhat strange way, and it still would not feel natural. A “general rule” version is usually phrased differently, e.g.:
- Когда звенит звонок, студенты перестают двигаться по коридору.
(“When the bell rings [in general], students stop moving in the corridor.”)
But для будущего конкретного случая (“for this specific future situation”), перестанут is correct.
Yes, you can:
- Когда будет звонок, студенты перестанут двигаться по коридору.
- Студенты перестанут двигаться по коридору, когда будет звонок.
Both are grammatically correct and mean essentially the same.
Difference:
- Starting with Когда будет звонок…:
- Emphasis first on the time condition: “As soon as the bell goes…”.
- Starting with Студенты перестанут…:
- Emphasis first on what will happen: “The students will stop moving when the bell goes.”
In most neutral contexts, the difference is only one of information focus, not of actual meaning.
Stresses:
- Когда́ – stress on -да́.
- бу́дет – stress on бу́-.
- звоноќ – stress on -но́к (звонОК).
- студе́нты – stress on -де́н-.
- переста́нут – stress on -ста́-.
- дви́гаться – stress on дви́- (the -ться at the end is unstressed and pronounced roughly like -ца).
- по коридо́ру – коридо́ру stress on -до́-.
Put together:
Когда́ бу́дет звонО́к, студе́нты переста́нут дви́гаться по коридо́ру.
Tricky bits for English speakers:
- Final -ться in двигаться sounds like a soft -ца.
- Make sure you don’t stress the wrong syllables (e.g. ко́ридору instead of коридО́ру, сту́денты instead of студЕ́нты).