Публика внимательно слушает музыканта.

The audience is listening to the musician attentively.

Breakdown of Публика внимательно слушает музыканта.

• слушать: to listen
• музыкант: the musician
• внимательно: attentively
• публика: the audience

Questions & Answers about Публика внимательно слушает музыканта.

Why is слушает in the singular if публика refers to many people?

In Russian, verbs agree with the grammatical number of the subject, not with its logical number.

• Публика is grammatically singular feminine, so the verb must also be singular: публика слушает.
• Even though публика refers to a group of people (the audience), it behaves like a singular noun, similar to the audience listens in English (not the audience listen in standard English).

Using a plural verb (публика слушают) is generally considered non‑standard or very colloquial; публика слушает is the normal, correct form.

Why is it музыканта and not музыкант?

This is a case ending issue:

• Музыкант is the nominative case (used for the subject: the musician plays).
• In the sentence, музыканта is the direct object (the audience listens to whom?), so Russian uses the accusative case.

Because музыкант is:

• masculine,
• singular, and
• animate (a person),

its accusative singular form is музыканта (ending in -а), which matches the genitive form.

So:

• Кто? Что? (who? what?) – музыкант (nominative)
• Кого? Что? (whom? what?) – музыканта (accusative, animate)

What exactly does публика mean? Is it the same as audience or public?

Публика usually means the audience in the context of a performance, concert, show, etc.

Nuances:

• At a concert, theater, or performance, публика = the audience.
• It can also mean the public, but often with a nuance of the people present at some event or a certain social circle.

Examples:

• Публика аплодировала стоя. – The audience gave a standing ovation.
• Эта книга рассчитана на широкую публику. – This book is intended for a broad public.

In your sentence, the natural translation is the audience is listening attentively to the musician.

Why is the verb слушать used and not слышать? Don’t they both mean “to hear”?

Russian distinguishes clearly between:

• слушать – to listen (to), make a conscious effort to hear
• слышать – to hear, perceive sound without necessarily trying

So:

• Публика внимательно слушает музыканта.
  – The audience is listening attentively (actively focusing on the music).

If you said:

• Публика слышит музыканта.

it would mean simply The audience can hear the musician (they are able to hear him; the sound reaches them), without emphasizing attention or focus. That would be a different meaning.

Why is внимательно placed before слушает? Could it go somewhere else?

Внимательно is an adverb meaning attentively. Its most neutral position is right before the verb:

• Публика внимательно слушает музыканта.

Other positions are possible but come with nuance:

• Публика слушает музыканта внимательно.
  – Slightly emphasizes how they listen, often as a contrast: “They do listen attentively (not just casually).”

• Внимательно публика слушает музыканта.
  – Sounds a bit more poetic or expressive; extra emphasis on attentively.

The version in your sentence is the most standard and neutral word order.

Is the sentence talking about “is listening” (right now) or “listens” (in general)? Russian just has слушает.

In Russian, the present tense of an imperfective verb (like слушать) can cover both:

1. An ongoing action right now

   • The audience is listening attentively to the musician (at this moment).

2. A repeated / habitual action

   • The audience (typically) listens attentively to the musician.

Context decides which interpretation is meant. Russian does not have a separate present continuous form like English is listening; the simple present слушает covers both.

What is the aspect of слушает, and could I use послушает instead?

Слушает comes from слушать, which is imperfective:

• Imperfective (слушать) – process, duration, repeated action, description:
  Публика внимательно слушает музыканта.
  – Focus on the ongoing act of listening.

The common perfective partner is послушать:

• Послушать is perfective – a completed act or a bounded period of listening.
• Perfective verbs normally do not have a present tense with real present meaning. So публика послушает is future:
  – The audience will listen (for a while) to the musician.

So you cannot use послушает here to mean is listening now. To describe what is happening right now, you must use the imperfective слушает.

What gender is публика, and how would adjectives agree with it?

Публика is:

• feminine,
• singular,
• nominative in this sentence.

Adjectives describing it must be feminine singular:

• Внимательная публика слушает музыканта.
  – The attentive audience listens to the musician.

Agreement pattern:

• Feminine adjective ending in -ая in nominative singular: внимательная
• Feminine noun ending in -а in nominative singular: публика

Could I use зрители or аудитория instead of публика? Would it change the meaning?

All three are possible, but they differ slightly:

• Публика – the audience as a collective mass, general and a bit literary.
• Зрители – literally viewers/spectators, emphasizes people who are watching (e.g., theater, show, sports). Still natural in many performance contexts.
• Аудитория – can mean audience (group of listeners/readers) or a group of people targeted by some message (like “target audience”). It is also the word for lecture hall.

Possible alternatives:

• Зрители внимательно слушают музыканта.
  – The spectators are listening attentively to the musician.

• Аудитория внимательно слушает музыканта.
  – The audience (e.g., at a lecture or talk) listens attentively to the musician.

Your original публика sounds very natural for a concert/performance context.

How do you pronounce the words in this sentence, and where is the stress?

Stresses (marked with ´ on the stressed vowel):

• пу́блика – PU-bli-ka
• внима́тельно – vni-MA-tel'-no
• слу́шает – SLU-sha-yet
• музыка́нта – mu-zy-KAN-ta

In IPA (approximate):

• Публика – [ˈpublʲɪkə]
• Внимательно – [vnʲɪˈmatʲɪlʲnə]
• Слушает – [ˈsluʂə(j)ɪt]
• Музыканта – [mʊzɨˈkantə]

Could the word order be changed, for example: Музыканта внимательно слушает публика?

Yes. Russian word order is relatively flexible, and:

• Музыканта внимательно слушает публика.

is grammatically correct. The difference is in emphasis:

• Публика внимательно слушает музыканта.
  – Neutral; emphasizes who is listening (the audience) and what they are doing.

• Музыканта внимательно слушает публика.
  – Brings музыканта to the front, emphasizing whom they are listening to, maybe contrasting with some other person or sound.

The original word order is the most normal neutral pattern for this simple sentence.

How would the sentence change if there were several musicians?

If the audience is listening to several musicians, you would put музыкант in the plural accusative:

• Публика внимательно слушает музыкантов.
  – The audience is listening attentively to the musicians.

Here:

• музыканты – nominative plural
• музыкантов – genitive/accusative plural (for animate nouns)

Everything else in the sentence stays the same.