Breakdown of Я хочу, чтобы мама улыбнулась, когда я принесу ей цветы.
Questions & Answers about Я хочу, чтобы мама улыбнулась, когда я принесу ей цветы.
In Russian, чтобы is used to express:
- a wish or desire for someone else to do something
- a goal or purpose (“so that …”, “for … to …”)
Я хочу, чтобы мама улыбнулась literally means “I want for mom to smile.”
Using что would be wrong here:
✗ Я хочу, что мама улыбнулась – ungrammatical.
Что introduces factual statements (“that something is true”), not desired or hypothetical actions.
Formally, улыбнулась is past tense, but in this construction it expresses a subjunctive / desired action, not real past time.
Russian often uses past tense forms to talk about unreal, wished-for, or hypothetical actions, especially with:
- чтобы (as here)
- or with the particle бы (e.g. улыбнулась бы)
So чтобы мама улыбнулась ≈ “for mom to smile / would smile,” not “for mom smiled.” The time reference (future) comes from the context (когда я принесу ей цветы).
In the clause чтобы мама улыбнулась, мама is the subject of the verb улыбнулась:
- кто? что? (who? what?) → nominative case
- мама (subject) + улыбнулась (verb)
You would use the accusative маму only if мама were a direct object, for example:
- Я люблю маму. – “I love mom.” (Here маму is the object.)
In your sentence, mom is the one doing the smiling, so nominative is required.
Because the verb принести (“to bring”) takes:
- что? (what?) in the accusative: цветы
- кому? (to whom?) in the dative: ей
So:
- принести ей цветы = “to bring her flowers / to bring flowers to her”
- цветы – direct object (accusative)
- ей – indirect object (dative, “to her”)
Её is used for accusative/genitive (“her” as a direct object or “her”/“of her”), not for “to her.”
Russian word order is more flexible than English. All of these are grammatically correct:
- …когда я принесу ей цветы. (most neutral)
- …когда я ей принесу цветы. (slightly emphasizing ей)
- …когда я принесу цветы ей. (emphasis on цветы / contrastive)
Pronouns like ей typically stay close to the verb, and принесу ей цветы sounds very natural. Changing the order usually just shifts emphasis, not grammar.
Принесу is the perfective future form of принести and means “I will bring (once, as a single complete event).”
- принесу – perfective, one completed action in the future
- приношу – imperfective, present (“I am bringing / I bring (regularly)”)
- буду приносить – imperfective, future continuous/habitual (“I will be bringing / I will bring regularly”)
In this sentence, you are talking about one specific future act of bringing flowers, so принесу is the natural choice.
In Russian, perfective verbs form their future by simple present-like endings:
- я принесу – “I will bring” (perfective future)
- я скажу – “I will say”
- я прочитаю – “I will read (once, to completion)”
There is no separate word for “will.” The aspect (perfective) plus the personal ending -у / -ю signals future for a one-time completed action.
For ongoing or repeated future actions, Russian uses быть + imperfective infinitive:
- я буду приносить – “I will (keep) bringing / will bring (from time to time).”
This is another aspect choice:
- улыбнуться (perfective) → улыбнулась
- one act of smiling, the moment of smiling
- улыбаться (imperfective) → улыбалась
- to be smiling for some time, to smile repeatedly or continuously
Я хочу, чтобы мама улыбнулась…
→ “I want mom to smile (once, at that moment) when I bring her flowers.”
If you say:
- Я хочу, чтобы мама улыбалась, когда я принесу ей цветы.
it suggests you want her to be in a smiling state (smiling over some period) while you bring the flowers, not just to flash a single smile at that moment.
Yes, you can, but the nuance changes:
- чтобы мама улыбнулась – you want her to smile (at that moment), a single act.
- чтобы мама улыбалась – you want her to be smiling, i.e., to be in a smiling mood/state (for some time) while you bring the flowers.
So both are correct; the original with улыбнулась highlights the single act of smiling in response to your action.
Past tense verbs in Russian agree with the subject in gender and number:
- masculine: он улыбнулся
- feminine: она улыбнулась
- neuter: оно улыбнулось
- plural: они улыбнулись
Since мама is grammatically feminine, the verb must be feminine past:
- мама улыбнулась – “mom smiled”
So in чтобы мама улыбнулась, the feminine ending -лась shows agreement with мама.
Both чтобы мама улыбнулась and когда я принесу ей цветы are subordinate clauses. In Russian, subordinate clauses are normally separated from the main clause (and from each other) by commas.
Structure:
- Main clause: Я хочу
- Subordinate clause 1 (object of “want”): чтобы мама улыбнулась
- Subordinate clause 2 (adverbial of time): когда я принесу ей цветы
So we write:
Я хочу, чтобы мама улыбнулась, когда я принесу ей цветы.
Each conjunction (чтобы, когда) introduces its own clause, and commas mark their boundaries.
You can, and it is grammatically correct, but the natural interpretation of time shifts:
Original: Я хочу, чтобы мама улыбнулась, когда я принесу ей цветы.
– I now want mom to smile when I bring her flowers.Когда я принесу ей цветы, я хочу, чтобы мама улыбнулась.
– “When I bring her flowers, I will want mom to smile.”
It tends to sound like your wanting will also happen at that future time.
In everyday speech, most people would keep the original order to clearly show that the wanting is in the present and the smiling is in the future.
With close family members (especially мама, папа, бабушка, дедушка), Russian often omits the possessive pronoun when it’s obvious whose relative is meant.
So:
- Я хочу, чтобы мама улыбнулась…
≈ “I want (my) mom to smile…”
Saying моя мама is not wrong, but it usually adds some emphasis or contrast (e.g., not someone else’s mom, but *my mom). In a neutral sentence like this, simple *мама is more natural.