Learn Hardcore Russian: Учитель не заставляет студентов говорить громко, он только просит. - The teacher does not make the students speak loudly; he only asks.

In Russian, direct objects are usually in the accusative case.
Студенты is nominative plural (subject form).
Студентов is genitive/accusative plural (object form for animate masculine nouns).

Because студенты (students) are animate, their accusative plural form matches the genitive plural: студентов.
So the pattern is:

Кто? Что? (who? what?) → студенты (subject)
Кого? Что? (whom? what?) → студентов (object)

Why do we use the infinitive говорить after заставляет?

In Russian, many verbs that express influence on someone’s actions are followed by an infinitive.
Заставлять кого-то делать что-то literally means to force someone to do something:

заставляет студентов говорить = forces/makes the students speak

So the pattern is:

заставлять / просить / учить / приглашать
- кого?
  - делать (infinitive)

You could say something like заставляет студентов, чтобы они говорили громко, but it sounds clumsy and unnatural here. The infinitive construction is the normal, idiomatic choice.

What is the exact difference between заставляет and просит?

Both relate to influencing behavior, but the force level is different:

заставлять = to force, to make someone do something against their will or with strong pressure
- implies authority, obligation, lack of choice
просить = to ask (politely), to request
- implies that the listener has some freedom to refuse

So the sentence contrasts:

не заставляет (does not force)
только просит (only asks)

Why is the pronoun он repeated in the second part instead of being dropped?

Russian can drop subject pronouns when the subject is clear from context, but it often keeps them for clarity or contrast.

Here, он in он только просит emphasizes the contrast between the two actions of the same person:

Учитель не заставляет студентов говорить громко, он только просит.

This sounds very natural, and the он makes it very clear that it is still the teacher, and that his second action (only asking) is being contrasted with what he does not do (forcing).

You could say just …, только просит., and it would still be understandable, but it’s more typical in written standard Russian to repeat он here.

Where did the English “them” go in он только просит? Why is there no их?

In English you must say he only asks them, but in Russian the object can be omitted when it’s obvious from context.

From the first clause we already know who is being affected: студентов.
So in the second clause (их) is understood and does not have to be repeated:

Учитель не заставляет студентов говорить громко, он только просит (их).

Adding их is grammatically correct but often unnecessary and slightly heavier in style. Omitting it is normal because the listener already knows that “them” refers to the same students.

Why is there a comma between the two parts instead of a conjunction like но or а?

The sentence consists of two independent clauses:

Учитель не заставляет студентов говорить громко
он только просит

They are joined by a comma, which is common in Russian for closely related clauses, especially when the logical link is obvious from context.

You could add a conjunction for more explicit contrast:

…, а только просит.
…, но он только просит.

These versions emphasize the contrast even more, but the original with just a comma is also correct and idiomatic.

Why is говорить громко used, and can we also say громко говорить?

Both говорить громко and громко говорить are grammatically correct, and both are used.

говорить громко – neutral, very common word order: verb + adverb
громко говорить – possible and also natural; the adverb is slightly more prominent

In this sentence, говорить громко is simply the most straightforward, typical order. There is no change in meaning; any difference is a very subtle nuance of emphasis, often not important in everyday speech.

Why are заставляет and просит in the present tense and imperfective aspect here?

The sentence describes what the teacher generally does / usually does, not a single completed event.
In Russian, for habitual or characteristic actions, we normally use:

present tense
imperfective aspect

So:

(Он) заставляет = he (typically) forces / makes
(Он) просит = he (typically) asks

If we used perfective forms (заставит, попросит), that would refer to a single future act (“will force once / will ask once”), which is not the meaning here.

Could the word order be Учитель не заставляет говорить громко студентов?

That word order is grammatically possible but sounds unnatural and even confusing.

In Russian, the usual and clearest pattern is:

заставлять кого? делать что?
→ заставляет студентов говорить громко

Putting студентов at the end (…говорить громко студентов) breaks the normal pattern “who is forced to do what” and may momentarily make the listener expect говорить громко to be the object (which it isn’t).

So Учитель не заставляет студентов говорить громко is the natural, preferred order.

Could we say Учитель не заставляет студентов говорить громко, он только просит говорить громко? Is that better?

That version is grammatically correct, but it is unnecessarily repetitive:

…заставляет студентов говорить громко, он только просит говорить громко

Since говорить громко is already mentioned in the first part, Russian style strongly prefers to omit the repeated part when it is clear:

Учитель не заставляет студентов говорить громко, он только просит.

The shorter version is more natural and avoids redundant repetition.