Каждый зритель смеялся.

Every spectator laughed.

Breakdown of Каждый зритель смеялся.

• каждый: every
• смеяться: to laugh
• зритель: the spectator

Questions & Answers about Каждый зритель смеялся.

What case are каждый and зритель in, and why?

Both каждый and зритель are in the nominative singular:

• каждый – nominative masculine singular of the determiner “each / every”
• зритель – nominative masculine singular of the noun “spectator”

They are in the nominative because together they form the subject of the sentence. In Russian, the subject normally stands in the nominative case and the verb agrees with it in gender and number, which is why the verb is смеялся (masculine singular) and not a plural form.

Why is зритель singular when we’re talking about many spectators?

In Russian, каждый (“each, every”) normally takes a singular noun, just like English every:

• каждый зритель – every / each spectator
• каждый день – every day
• каждая книга – every book

Even though the meaning is “all the individuals in a group, one by one”, grammatically it stays singular. This is the same pattern as English every spectator (not every spectators).

If you want a straightforward plural subject, you’d use:

• все зрители смеялись – all the spectators laughed.

Why is the verb смеялся (masculine singular) and not a plural form like смеялись?

The verb agrees with the grammatical subject, not with the “real-world” number of people.

Here the grammatical subject is каждый зритель, grammatically masculine singular. So the verb must be masculine singular past tense:

• Каждый зритель смеялся. – Every spectator laughed.

If the subject were plural, the verb would agree in the plural:

• Все зрители смеялись. – All the spectators laughed.

If the subject were feminine singular, the verb would be feminine singular:

• Каждая зрительница смеялась. – Every (female) spectator laughed.

How would the verb change with different genders and numbers?

From the infinitive смеяться (“to laugh”), the past tense forms are:

• Masculine singular: смеялся
  
  • Каждый зритель смеялся. – Every (male) spectator laughed.
• Feminine singular: смеялась
  
  • Каждая девушка смеялась. – Every girl laughed.
• Neuter singular: смеялось
  
  • Каждое дитя смеялось. – Every child laughed.
• Plural (any gender mix): смеялись
  
  • Все зрители смеялись. – All the spectators laughed.

Past-tense verbs in Russian agree in gender and number, but not in person.

What is the dictionary (infinitive) form of смеялся, and what does the -ся mean?

The dictionary / infinitive form is смеяться – “to laugh”.

The -ся (or -сь after a vowel) is the reflexive ending. In many verbs it originally marked reflexive or reciprocal meanings, but for verbs like смеяться it’s simply part of the verb and is always there. You don’t normally say смеять in modern Russian.

Past tense is formed like this:

• смея́ться → stem смея-
  • л (past tense) + ся (reflexive)
    → смея́лся.

Why is it каждый зритель смеялся and not каждый смеялся зритель?

In Russian, determiners and adjectives like каждый must stand directly before the noun they modify:

• ✅ каждый зритель – every spectator
• ❌ каждый смеялся зритель – wrong; you’ve separated каждый from зритель

Normal word order in the neutral sentence is Subject – Verb:

• Каждый зритель смеялся.

You can move parts around for emphasis, but каждый and зритель must stay together:

• Смеялся каждый зритель. – Still correct; emphasizes каждый зритель.

Is there any difference in meaning between Каждый зритель смеялся and Все зрители смеялись?

Both can often translate as “All the spectators laughed”, but there is a nuance:

• Каждый зритель смеялся.

  • More distributive: “Each individual spectator laughed (one by one, no exceptions).”
  • Highlights each person in the group.

• Все зрители смеялись.

  • More collective: “All the spectators (as a group) were laughing.”
  • Focus on the group as a whole, less on individuals.

In many everyday contexts they feel almost interchangeable, but каждый is stronger if you want to stress “every single one”.

Can I say каждый из зрителей смеялся, and how is that different?

Yes, you can:

• Каждый из зрителей смеялся. – Each of the spectators laughed.

Structure:

• каждый из
  • GENITIVE PLURAL (зрителей)

Nuance:

• каждый зритель смеялся – “every spectator (generally) laughed”
• каждый из зрителей смеялся – “each one from this particular set of spectators laughed”

The second form makes the set more explicit (“of the spectators present / mentioned”).

What tense and aspect is смеялся, and how would I say this in present or future?

смеялся is:

• Past tense
• Imperfective aspect
• Masculine singular
• Reflexive

Imperfective aspect here usually corresponds to English “laughed / was laughing”, without focusing on the moment it started or ended.

Other tenses:

• Present:
  
  • Каждый зритель смеётся. – Every spectator laughs / is laughing.
• Future (imperfective):
  
  • Каждый зритель будет смеяться. – Every spectator will (be) laugh(ing).

There is also a perfective partner засмеяться – “to burst out laughing, to start laughing”:

• Каждый зритель засмеялся. – Every spectator burst out laughing / started to laugh.

What’s the difference between смеялся and засмеялся in a sentence like this?

• смеялся (imperfective) focuses on the process or state of laughing:

  • Каждый зритель смеялся. – Every spectator was laughing / laughed (overall).

• засмеялся (perfective) focuses on the moment of beginning:

  • Каждый зритель засмеялся. – Every spectator started laughing / burst out laughing.

So you choose:

• смеялся – describing that they were in a state of laughter.
• засмеялся – emphasizing that a laugh began at some point (e.g., in reaction to a joke).

Can I add what they were laughing at, like “at the joke”?

Yes. With смеяться, you usually use the preposition над + instrumental case:

• Каждый зритель смеялся над шуткой.
  – Every spectator laughed at the joke.

More examples:

• Каждый зритель смеялся над комиком. – at the comedian
• Каждый зритель смеялся над своими ошибками. – at their own mistakes

But in your original sentence Каждый зритель смеялся, no object is required; it simply states that they laughed.

Why is there no word for “the” or “a” in каждый зритель?

Russian has no articles (“a / an / the”). Their meanings are covered by context, word order, and other words like этот (this), тот (that), etc.

Каждый зритель by itself can be translated as:

• “every spectator”
• “each spectator”
• “every one of the spectators” (if the context makes “the” clear)

If you need to be explicit about a known group, you can use:

• каждый из зрителей – each of the spectators

But generally, Russian does not mark definiteness with separate words the way English does.

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

Stresses:

• ка́ждый – stress on ка́-
• зри́тель – stress on зри́-
• смея́лся – stress on -я́-

So:

• Ка́ждый зри́тель смея́лся.

Syllable by syllable (roughly):

• ка́ж – like “kahzh” (zh as in “vision”)
• дый – like “diy” with Russian ы ([i] but deeper)
• зри́ – “zree” (with a rolled or tapped r)
• тель – “tyel’ ” (soft т and ль)
• сме- – “sme-” (short e)
• я́л – “yal” (stressed “ya”)
• -ся – “-sya” (very short, almost “-s’a”)

For learners, it’s enough to remember the stress positions: ка́ждый зри́тель смея́лся.

Is зритель always masculine? How would I talk about female spectators?

Зритель is a masculine noun, but it can refer to a person of any gender in the generic sense (“spectator, viewer”).

If you specifically want to emphasize that the spectators are female, you can use:

• зрительница – female spectator

Then your sentence could be:

• Каждая зрительница смеялась. – Every (female) spectator laughed.

But in most neutral contexts, зритель is used for spectators of any gender, and the masculine grammar is just the default form.

Could I drop каждый and just say Зрители смеялись? Does it mean the same thing?

You can say:

• Зрители смеялись. – (The) spectators were laughing / laughed.
• Все зрители смеялись. – All the spectators laughed.

These are similar in meaning but not identical to Каждый зритель смеялся:

• Каждый зритель смеялся. – emphasizes every single one, no exceptions, each individual.
• Зрители смеялись. – just states that the spectators laughed, with no special focus on “every one”.
• Все зрители смеялись. – emphasizes the whole group, but a bit less strongly on the idea “one by one, without exception” than каждый often does.

So you choose based on whether you want to stress the individual “each” idea or just describe what the group was doing.