Learn Hardcore Russian: Сегодня наш преподаватель немного злой, потому что никто не сделал домашнее задание. - Today our teacher is a bit angry because nobody did the homework.

If you add есть (is/exists), it usually sounds either old-fashioned, emphatic, or changes the nuance. In ordinary modern speech, you simply leave the verb out in the present tense.

In the past or future, you must use the verb:

Вчера преподаватель был злой. – The teacher was angry.
Завтра преподаватель будет злой. – The teacher will be angry.

What does немного do here, and where can it go in the sentence?

Немного is an adverb meaning “a little, somewhat”. Here it softens the adjective злой:

немного злой – a little angry / somewhat angry

It usually goes right before the word it modifies:

немного злой преподаватель – a slightly angry teacher
наш преподаватель немного злой – our teacher is a bit angry

You could also use similar words:

чуть-чуть злой – just a tiny bit angry
немного сердитый – a bit annoyed/angry (with a softer word than злой)

Is злой the right word for “angry”? Doesn’t it also mean “evil”?

Злой can mean both “angry” and “mean/evil”, depending on context.

In everyday contexts like this sentence, with преподаватель, it usually just means “angry, in a bad mood”:

Сегодня наш преподаватель немного злой – Today our teacher is a bit angry / grumpy.

If you really want “evil” in a moral sense, the context usually makes that clear, or you might reinforce it:

Он очень злой человек. – He is a very mean / bad person.

For “angry” without the “evil” nuance, Russians also say:

сердитый – angry, cross
раздражённый – irritated
недовольный – displeased

But злой for a temporarily angry teacher is absolutely natural.

Why is никто followed by не сделал? Isn’t that a double negative?

Yes, from an English point of view it looks like a double negative, but in Russian this is normal and required. Russian has negative concord:

никто не сделал – literally nobody didn’t do, but it means nobody did.
ничего не понимаю – I don’t understand anything.
никогда не курю – I never smoke.

You must use не with negative pronouns (никто, ничего, никогда, никуда, etc.) in negative sentences. Leaving out не would be incorrect here:

никто сделал ❌ (ungrammatical)

Why is the verb сделал (perfective) used here, and not делал?

Сделал is the perfective form of делать/сделать, and it focuses on the completion of the action: nobody completed the homework.

никто не сделал домашнее задание – Nobody did / finished the homework.
(The homework is not done at all.)

If you say никто не делал домашнее задание, that has a more process / habitual meaning:

Could mean “nobody was doing the homework (at that time)”
Or “nobody used to do the homework (regularly)”

In this sentence, the teacher is angry because this specific homework assignment was not completed, so perfective сделал is the natural choice.

Why is the verb сделал singular and masculine if it refers to никто (“nobody”)?

The subject is никто, and even though it refers to a group of people in meaning, grammatically it is treated as singular, masculine by default.

So the verb agrees with никто:

Никто не сделал домашнее задание. – Nobody (he) did… (grammatically: he didn’t do it)
Никто не пришёл. – Nobody came.

Russian often uses masculine singular as a kind of default when gender is not specified or is mixed.

What is the grammar and meaning of домашнее задание?

Домашнее задание literally means “home assignment”, and is the usual way to say “homework”.

Grammar:

задание – a neuter noun (ending in -е)
домашнее – an adjective meaning “home” / “homework”, in the neuter singular nominative/accusative form, agreeing with задание.

In the sentence it is a direct object of сделал, so it is in the accusative. For inanimate neuter nouns, accusative = nominative, so the form doesn’t change:

Nominative: домашнее задание – the homework (subject)
Accusative: сделал домашнее задание – did the homework (object)

Even if, in English, we say “homework” as a mass noun, Russian still normally uses the singular домашнее задание for “one homework assignment” or simply “the homework” for that day.

Why is it наш преподаватель, not just преподаватель?

Наш means “our”, so the phrase is literally “our teacher”.

In Russian, possessive words like наш / мой / ваш are often used where English might say “the teacher”:

Сегодня наш преподаватель немного злой.
Can be understood as “Today the teacher is a bit angry” (the one who teaches us).

You could also say:

Сегодня преподаватель немного злой. – Today the teacher is a bit angry.
That’s also correct; context decides whether you need наш to clarify which teacher you’re talking about.

What is the difference between преподаватель and учитель?

Both can be translated as “teacher”, but there is a nuance:

учитель
- Usually: school teacher (elementary/middle/high school)
- Emphasis on teaching children or pupils
преподаватель
- Often: college / university teacher, lecturer, instructor
- Can also be used for instructors in various courses (language courses, etc.)
- Sounds a bit more formal and professional

In many contexts for adults or higher education, преподаватель is the more natural word.

Why is there a comma before потому что?

Потому что introduces a subordinate clause of reason (“because…”) and is treated as a conjunction. Russian normally uses a comma to separate the main clause from the subordinate clause:

Сегодня наш преподаватель немного злой, потому что никто не сделал домашнее задание.
Main clause: Сегодня наш преподаватель немного злой
Subordinate clause: потому что никто не сделал домашнее задание

The comma is required here in standard writing.

Be careful with the difference:

потому что (together) – because
потому, что (separated by a comma) – a different construction, usually “for the reason that…”, used in more literary or specific contexts; not needed here.

Can the word order be changed, for example with никто or домашнее задание?

Yes, Russian word order is more flexible than English, though it affects emphasis.

Neutral:

…потому что никто не сделал домашнее задание.

Possible variations:

…потому что домашнее задание никто не сделал.
Emphasis shifts more to домашнее задание – the homework is what nobody did.
Никто домашнее задание не сделал.
Sounds like stressing that, as for the homework, nobody did it.

All of these are grammatically correct; speakers choose the order to highlight different information.

Why is сегодня at the beginning? Could it go elsewhere?

Сегодня means “today”, and placing it at the beginning is very common because it sets the time frame:

Сегодня наш преподаватель немного злой… – Today, our teacher is a bit angry…

You can move сегодня without changing the basic meaning:

Наш преподаватель сегодня немного злой.
Наш преподаватель немного злой сегодня. (less common, more emphatic about today)

All are grammatically correct. Starting with сегодня is simply a neutral, natural choice.

How does немного злой agree grammatically with преподаватель?

Agreement works like this:

преподаватель – masculine, singular, nominative.
злой – adjective in masculine singular nominative to agree with преподаватель.
немного – an adverb; it does not change form and does not agree by gender or number. It just modifies the adjective злой.

So:

злой преподаватель – an angry teacher (masculine)
наш преподаватель злой – our teacher is angry
наш преподаватель немного злой – our teacher is a little angry

What if the teacher is a woman? How would the sentence change?

Преподаватель is grammatically masculine, even if the actual person is a woman. There are two options:

Keep преподаватель (most common in modern usage):
- Сегодня наш преподаватель немного злая, потому что никто не сделал домашнее задание.
  Here, злая is feminine singular, agreeing with the actual person (female), while преподаватель remains grammatically masculine.
Use the explicitly feminine noun преподавательница:
- Сегодня наша преподавательница немного злая…

Both are correct; option 1 is very common professionally. Note that наш would change to наша with преподавательница (feminine).

What is the difference between никто and ничто?

Both are negative pronouns, but they refer to different kinds of things:

никто – nobody, no one (people)
- Никто не сделал домашнее задание. – Nobody did the homework.
ничто – nothing (things/abstract)
- Ничто не помогло. – Nothing helped.

In this sentence, because we are talking about people (students), никто is the correct choice.