Learn Hardcore Russian: Учитель доволен, когда видит, что студент уверен и не боится говорить. - The teacher is satisfied when he sees that the student is confident and not afraid to speak.

Using «есть» here (Учитель есть доволен) sounds unnatural and is almost never said in modern Russian. «Есть» is only used in special cases, for example:

to emphasize existence: Бог есть. – God exists.
in mathematics or definitions: Два плюс два есть четыре.

So the natural Russian way is simply: Учитель доволен.

What exactly is «доволен» and how is it different from «довольный»?

«Доволен» is a short-form adjective (краткое прилагательное).
The full form is «довольный».

Short form (доволен, довольна, довольно, довольны)
- Used mainly after the noun, as a predicate:
  - Учитель доволен. – The teacher is pleased.
- Often describes a temporary or current state or result: pleased right now, in this situation.
Full form (довольный, довольная, довольное, довольные)
- Commonly used before a noun:
  - довольный учитель – a pleased/satisfied teacher
- As a predicate it’s also possible, but a bit more like a characteristic:
  - Учитель довольный. – sounds more like He is a “generally pleased”/satisfied kind of teacher, or slightly colloquial / descriptive.

In this sentence we are talking about how the teacher feels in that moment, so the short form «доволен» is exactly right.

How would the sentence change if the teacher were female or if we were talking about several teachers?

Short-form adjectives must agree with the gender and number of the subject.

Current sentence (masculine singular):

Учитель доволен… – The (male) teacher is pleased…

For a female teacher:

Учительница довольна, когда видит, что студент уверен и не боится говорить.
- довольна – feminine singular.

For several teachers:

Учителя довольны, когда видят, что студент уверен и не боится говорить.
- довольны – plural
- видят – plural verb form to agree with учителя.

Neuter example (for practice):

Руководство довольно, когда видит… – The management is pleased when it sees…

Why is there no pronoun in «когда видит»? Who is the subject of «видит»?

In Russian, subject pronouns (он, она, они, etc.) are often dropped when the subject is obvious from context.

The previous clause is:

Учитель доволен… – The teacher is pleased…

Then:

…, когда видит, что… – literally: when (he) sees that…

Native speakers automatically understand that «видит» refers to «учитель».
You can say «когда он видит» – that is grammatically correct – but the «он» is usually unnecessary and is only used for emphasis or to avoid ambiguity.

So both are possible:

Учитель доволен, когда видит, что… (most natural)
Учитель доволен, когда он видит, что… (more explicit, slightly heavier).

Why is the verb «видит» (present tense, imperfective) used and not «увидит» or some future form?

«Видит» here is:

present tense
imperfective aspect
used to describe a general, repeated situation.

The idea is “Whenever he sees that the student is confident…”. Russian uses present imperfective for habitual / repeated actions.

If you said «когда увидит», that’s future + perfective:

Учитель будет доволен, когда увидит, что студент уверен…
– more like The teacher will be pleased when he (finally) sees that the student is confident… (a single future event).

In the given sentence, the speaker is describing a general rule / typical reaction, so «когда видит» is the natural choice.

Why is there a comma before «когда» and another one before «что»?

Russian uses commas to separate main clauses from subordinate clauses introduced by conjunctions like «когда» (when) and «что» (that).

Structure of the sentence:

Main clause:
- Учитель доволен, … – The teacher is pleased…
Subordinate clause of time, introduced by «когда»:
- когда видит, что студент уверен и не боится говорить – when (he) sees that the student is confident and not afraid to speak
Inside that, there is another subordinate clause, introduced by «что»:
- что студент уверен и не боится говорить – that the student is confident and not afraid to speak

Each subordinate clause is introduced by a conjunction and preceded by a comma:

Учитель доволен, когда видит, что студент уверен и не боится говорить.

What is the difference between «уверен» and «уверенный»? Why is «студент уверен» used here?

«Уверен» is a short-form adjective; «уверенный» is the full form.

студент уверен – the student is confident (now, in this situation)
- short form, predicate position
- describes a current state.
уверенный студент – a confident student
- full form, before the noun, describing a type / characteristic of student.

In predicate position, the short form feels more natural and neutral:

Учитель доволен, когда видит, что студент уверен.

You can technically say «что студент уверенный», but:

it sounds more colloquial or stylistically marked, and
it shifts a bit from “he feels confident now” toward “he is a confident kind of person.”

That’s why «уверен» fits best here.

Should there be «в себе» after «уверен», like «уверен в себе»?

Both are possible, but they are not identical:

студент уверен – the student is confident / sure.
Context decides: he might be confident in what he’s saying, in the answer, in himself, etc.
студент уверен в себе – the student is self-confident (has self-confidence).

In this sentence, since it’s about speaking and not being afraid to speak, both interpretations make sense, and Russian doesn’t need to spell it out. Adding «в себе» would specifically highlight self-confidence:

Учитель доволен, когда видит, что студент уверен в себе и не боится говорить.

That’s also correct and natural; it just makes the nuance more explicit.

What is «боится» grammatically, and how does it work with «говорить»?

«Боится» is the 3rd person singular form of the reflexive verb «бояться» – to be afraid (of).

Infinitive: бояться
3rd person singular: он боится – he is afraid

The verb «бояться» can govern:

A noun in the genitive:
- Он боится темноты. – He is afraid of the dark.
An infinitive:
- Он боится говорить. – He is afraid to speak.

In the sentence:

не боится говорить – is not afraid to speak.

So the construction is: бояться + infinitive = to fear doing something.

Why is it «не боится говорить» and not something like «не боится говорить что-то»?

Russian often uses «бояться + infinitive» without specifying an object when the type of action itself is what causes fear.

боится говорить – is afraid to speak (in general)
боится плавать – is afraid to swim
боится летать – is afraid to fly

If you want to be more specific, you can add details:

не боится говорить по-русски – is not afraid to speak Russian
не боится говорить вслух – is not afraid to speak out loud
не боится говорить правду – is not afraid to tell the truth

In the given sentence the context is classroom speaking, so «не боится говорить» is enough and completely natural.

Could we use «если» instead of «когда»? What’s the difference between «когда видит» and «если видит»?

Both «когда» and «если» can introduce subordinate clauses, but they have different main meanings:

когда = when, whenever (time)
если = if (condition)

Учитель доволен, когда видит, что студент уверен…
– whenever/when he sees that the student is confident, he is pleased.
Focus: time / repeated situation.
Учитель доволен, если видит, что студент уверен…
– he is pleased if he sees that the student is confident.
Focus: condition (this is the condition for his being pleased).

In many real-life contexts they can feel close, but «когда» sounds more neutral and natural here because we are talking about a typical recurring situation, almost like a rule: Whenever this happens, he’s pleased.

Can we change the word order, for example: «Когда учитель видит, что студент уверен и не боится говорить, он доволен.»? Is that correct?

Yes, that word order is grammatically correct and sounds natural:

Когда учитель видит, что студент уверен и не боится говорить, он доволен.

Differences:

Original sentence:
- Учитель доволен, когда видит, что студент уверен и не боится говорить.
- Starts with the teacher’s emotional state (доволен) and then explains when this happens.
Reordered sentence:
- Starts with the condition / situation and gives the result at the end:
- When the teacher sees…, he is pleased.

Both are common patterns in Russian; the choice is mostly about style and emphasis, not correctness.