Breakdown of Учитель требует, чтобы студенты не кричали в коридоре.
Questions & Answers about Учитель требует, чтобы студенты не кричали в коридоре.
The verb требовать often takes a clause with чтобы + past‑tense verb to express what someone demands that someone (should) do.
Pattern:
- требовать, чтобы + (past tense)
- Учитель требует, чтобы студенты не кричали…
- literally: The teacher demands that the students not shout…
In this construction, the past tense (кричали) does not indicate past time. It functions like a kind of subjunctive / mandative mood:
- чтобы студенты кричали ≈ “that the students (should) shout”
- чтобы студенты не кричали ≈ “that the students (should) not shout”
So:
- чтобы introduces the clause of what is being demanded.
- The past plural form кричали agrees with студенты and marks this special mood, not past time.
Formally, кричали is the past‑tense plural of кричать.
However, in structures like:
- Учитель требует, чтобы студенты не кричали в коридоре.
the past tense is used in a subjunctive / “that they should …” sense, especially after verbs like:
- требовать (to demand)
- просить (to ask)
- советовать (to advise)
- хотеть (to want)
So:
- Он хочет, чтобы студенты пришли. – He wants the students to come.
- Учитель требует, чтобы студенты не кричали. – The teacher demands that the students not shout.
Time is understood from context (present / future). Grammar-wise, this is simply how Russian forms this kind of subordinate clause: чтобы + past tense indicates desired, required, or hypothetical action, not necessarily past time.
Yes, Учитель требует не кричать в коридоре is grammatically correct, but the nuance is a bit different.
Учитель требует, чтобы студенты не кричали в коридоре.
- Explicit subject in the subordinate clause: студенты.
- Slightly more formal / explicit.
- Structure: demand that [students] not shout.
Учитель требует не кричать в коридоре.
- Uses an infinitive не кричать.
- More impersonal: “requires not shouting in the corridor”.
- The subject (“who should not shout”) is left implicit and understood from context.
In practice, both can be used here and both mean almost the same. The чтобы‑clause more clearly states who is supposed to obey the rule.
In the clause:
- чтобы студенты не кричали в коридоре
the noun студенты is the subject of the verb кричали. In Russian, subjects are in the nominative case:
- кто? что? – студенты
If you changed the case:
- студентов – genitive (of students)
- студентам – dative (to students)
those would no longer be the correct subject form and would break the subject–verb agreement. So nominative студенты is required because they are the ones (who) не кричали.
In Russian, чтобы here introduces a subordinate clause (a dependent clause), so you must separate it with a comma:
- Учитель требует,
чтобы студенты не кричали в коридоре.
Rule (simplified):
- When чтобы introduces a separate clause with its own verb, you put a comma before it.
Compare:
- Я хочу, чтобы ты пришёл.
- Он сказал, чтобы мы ждали.
When чтобы functions more like a conjunction inside a simple clause (more rare and specific), comma rules can differ, but in this sentence it clearly starts a subordinate clause, so the comma is obligatory.
No, that would be ungrammatical.
The verb требовать in this structure needs something to connect it with the subordinate clause. That connector is чтобы:
- Учитель требует, чтобы студенты не кричали… ✅
- Учитель требует, студенты не кричали… ❌
Without чтобы, the second part (студенты не кричали…) just hangs there and does not form a proper subordinate clause linked to требует.
No. With this kind of construction you do not add бы after the verb.
Pattern:
- чтобы
- past tense verb
- чтобы студенты не кричали ✅
- чтобы студенты не кричали бы ❌ (wrong here)
- past tense verb
The бы particle is used to form other kinds of subjunctive / conditional meanings, for example:
- Студенты не кричали бы, если бы учитель был рядом.
- The students would not shout if the teacher were nearby.
But after verbs like требовать / хотеть / просить / советовать etc., in the construction verb + чтобы + past tense, you omit бы.
Yes, you can change the word order, and the basic meaning stays the same:
- …чтобы студенты не кричали в коридоре.
- …чтобы студенты в коридоре не кричали.
- …чтобы в коридоре студенты не кричали.
All are acceptable and mean the teacher demands that students not shout in the corridor.
Differences are subtle and about focus:
- студенты не кричали в коридоре – neutral; common order.
- студенты в коридоре не кричали – slightly emphasizes “when they are in the corridor”.
- в коридоре студенты не кричали – emphasizes the location first.
But grammatically they are all fine. Russian allows relatively flexible word order to shift emphasis.
Preposition choice here is about typical Russian usage:
- в коридоре – literally “in the corridor / inside the corridor”.
- This is the normal way to say in the hallway as a location.
- на коридоре – occasionally used in colloquial or dialect speech, but standard Russian prefers в коридоре.
- по коридору – means “along the corridor / through the corridor”.
- This focuses on movement, e.g. Он шёл по коридору. – He walked along the corridor.
Since the sentence describes where the students must not shout (a static location, not movement), в коридоре is the natural preposition + case combination:
- в
- prepositional (коридоре).
The verb кричать is imperfective, describing an ongoing or repeated action: “to shout, to be shouting”.
In a prohibition like:
- не кричали в коридоре
we are talking about any shouting at all, as a general or repeated behavior. For that, Russian almost always uses the imperfective.
The perfective крикнуть means “to give a shout / to shout once”. A form like:
- чтобы студенты не крикнули в коридоре
would sound odd here; it would imply “so that the students don’t let out a (single) shout in the corridor”, which is a very specific one‑time event. For general rules and bans, the imperfective (кричать) is the correct and natural choice.
All can introduce instructions, but they differ in strength and tone:
требует – demands, requires
- Strong, formal, or authoritative.
- Учитель требует, чтобы студенты не кричали…
- Sounds like an official rule or strict requirement.
просит – asks, requests
- Politer, less forceful.
- Учитель просит, чтобы студенты не кричали…
- The teacher is asking them, not strictly demanding.
говорит – says, tells
- Neutral; could just be information.
- Учитель говорит, чтобы студенты не кричали…
- Means “the teacher says that the students should not shout”, slightly less strong than требует, but can still function as an instruction.
приказывает – orders
- Very strong, clearly hierarchical.
- Офицер приказывает, чтобы солдаты не кричали…
- Sounds like a military / command situation.
So требует places this teacher’s instruction as a firm rule or requirement, stronger than a simple request.