Breakdown of Учитель попросил нас не кричать в коридоре.
Questions & Answers about Учитель попросил нас не кричать в коридоре.
Попросил is:
- past tense
- masculine singular
- perfective aspect (a completed action)
It agrees with the subject учитель, which is grammatically masculine.
Other forms:
- feminine: попросила (Учительница попросила нас…)
- neuter: попросило
- plural: попросили (Учителя попросили нас…)
So Учитель попросил… literally: The (male) teacher asked… in the past.
Yes, you can say Учитель просил нас не кричать в коридоре, but the nuance changes:
попросил (perfective) – one complete act of asking; it sounds like a specific incident:
- The teacher (once) asked us not to shout in the corridor.
просил (imperfective) – a repeated, ongoing, or background action:
- The teacher kept asking us / used to ask us not to shout in the corridor.
So both are grammatically correct; you choose based on whether you mean a single, specific ask (попросил) or a repeated/general one (просил).
The verb просить / попросить takes a direct object in the accusative:
- кого? (whom?) – нас (us)
- попросить кого? сделать что? – to ask someone to do something
Examples:
- Я попросил его подождать. – I asked him to wait.
- Она просит меня помочь. – She is asking me to help.
So Учитель попросил нас… = The teacher asked us… with нас as the direct object of the verb.
Russian commonly uses the pattern:
попросить кого? + (не) инфинитив
- попросил нас не кричать – asked us not to shout
The infinitive кричать names the action the teacher wants us to do / not do. It’s like English to shout in asked us not to shout.
A finite form like чтобы мы не кричали is also possible (see next question), but with кого? as a direct object, the infinitive construction is the most natural and concise.
Yes, Учитель попросил, чтобы мы не кричали в коридоре is grammatically correct.
Comparison:
Учитель попросил нас не кричать в коридоре.
- more compact, very typical in speech
- focuses on the action we are asked not to do
Учитель попросил, чтобы мы не кричали в коридоре.
- sounds a bit more formal / written
- focuses on the situation / result: that we (should) not be shouting
Both mean essentially the same thing; the infinitive version is more frequently used in everyday conversation.
Не is placed directly before the verb it negates: не кричать = not to shout.
- Учитель попросил нас не кричать в коридоре.
- He asked us not to shout in the corridor.
If you move не, you usually change the meaning:
- Учитель не попросил нас кричать в коридоре.
- The teacher did *not ask us to shout in the corridor.* (The request itself did not happen.)
So the original sentence negates the action кричать, not the act of asking. In Russian, the negative не must be directly in front of what is being negated.
The choice of case with в depends on motion vs location:
- в + accusative – motion into / to somewhere:
- в коридор – into the corridor
- в + prepositional – location in / inside somewhere:
- в коридоре – in the corridor
In the sentence, we are talking about where shouting happens (location), not moving into the corridor, so в коридоре (prepositional) is correct.
По коридору (instrumental) would mean along the corridor / through the corridor, and focuses on movement or distribution, not just the place.
Yes, Russian word order is flexible, and both variants are grammatical:
Учитель попросил нас не кричать в коридоре.
- neutral, most common order
Учитель нас попросил не кричать в коридоре.
- slightly emphasizes нас (us specifically)
Нас учитель попросил не кричать в коридоре.
- strong emphasis on нас (we, as opposed to someone else)
- often used when contrasting with others:
- Нас учитель попросил не кричать, а они всё равно кричали.
The basic meaning doesn’t change; it’s mostly about which part you want to highlight.
Yes, Учитель попросил не кричать в коридоре is fine and common.
Without нас, the sentence is more general:
- It can mean the teacher asked (everyone / people) not to shout in the corridor.
- The subject of кричать is understood from context (probably the class the teacher is talking to).
Including нас makes it explicit that we were the ones asked.
Rough scale from softer to stronger:
- попросил – asked (polite request; suggests a choice)
- сказал (нам) не кричать – told (us) not to shout (neutral instruction)
- приказал не кричать – ordered not to shout (strong, authoritative, almost military)
- заставил не кричать – made / forced (us) not to shout (we had no choice)
So Учитель попросил… sounds relatively polite and softer than приказал.
Yes. As direct speech, the teacher would typically use the imperative:
- To several students (formal/plural): Не кричите в коридоре!
- To one student (informal singular): Не кричи в коридоре!
Your sentence is the reported version of that:
- Учитель попросил нас не кричать в коридоре.
≈ The teacher asked us: “Don’t shout in the corridor.”
Standard Russian uses в with rooms and enclosed spaces:
- в коридоре – in the corridor
- в классе – in the classroom
- в комнате – in the room
На коридоре is non-standard / dialectal in most of the Russian-speaking world, though you might hear it regionally. In neutral, correct Russian, you should say в коридоре.
The correct stress is:
- учи́тель – stress on чи
- попроси́л – stress on the last syllable -сил
- крича́ть – stress on чать
- в коридо́ре – stress on до́
So the full sentence with stress marks:
Учи́тель попроси́л нас не крича́ть в коридо́ре.
Yes, there is a nuance:
- кричать – to shout, to yell (voice, loud talking)
- шуметь – to make noise in general (talking, banging, running, etc.)
So:
- не кричать в коридоре – not to shout in the corridor
- не шуметь в коридоре – not to make noise in the corridor (broader: be quiet in general)
The structure is the same grammatically; only the meaning of the verb changes.