Learn Hardcore Russian: Учитель просит внимания перед началом урока. - The teacher asks for attention before the start of the lesson.

With чего? (genitive), it often means “to ask for some amount of something / to request something in general,” similar to “to ask for” in English.

просить воды – to ask for (some) water
просить помощи – to ask for help
просить внимания – to ask for (people’s) attention

So внимания is in the genitive because it’s the thing being requested in this “ask for X” pattern: просить чего? внимания.

Using accusative внимание would usually need to be part of a bigger phrase, like просить ваше внимание (“ask for your attention”), which is a set phrase used in speeches and announcements: Прошу вашего внимания!

Could we also say Учитель просит внимание? Is that wrong?

By itself, Учитель просит внимание sounds incomplete or unnatural in Russian.

More natural options are:

Учитель просит внимания. – The teacher is asking for (some) attention.
Учитель просит вашего внимания. – The teacher is asking for your attention.
Учитель просит обратить внимание. – The teacher asks (you) to pay attention.

So you normally:

Use genitive: просить внимания
Or expand the phrase: просить чьё? внимание – просить наше / ваше / их внимание, or просить внимание к чему‑то.

Why do we use просит here and not спрашивает or спросит?

Russian has two different basic verbs for English “ask”:

просить – to ask for something, to request:
- просить помощи – ask for help
- просить совета – ask for advice
- просить внимания – ask for attention
спрашивать / спросить – to ask a question, to inquire:
- спрашивать о чём‑то – ask about something
- спросить учителя – ask the teacher (a question)

In Учитель просит внимания, the teacher is making a request (for attention), not asking a question, so просить is the correct verb.

What aspect and tense is просит, and how should I understand its time reference?

Просит is:

Aspect: imperfective (from просить)
Tense: present tense, 3rd person singular

Imperfective present in Russian can mean:

Something happening right now:
- At this moment: “The teacher is asking for attention (now).”
A repeated / habitual action:
- In general: “The teacher (usually) asks for attention before the lesson begins.”

Context will decide whether we understand it as “is asking” (now) or “asks” (habitually). Russian does not distinguish those forms grammatically; English does it with context or progressive forms.

Could we use the perfective form and say Учитель попросит внимания?

Yes, but the meaning changes:

Учитель просит внимания.
– The teacher is asking / asks for attention (now / regularly).
Учитель попросит внимания.
– The teacher will ask for attention (in the future, at some point).
This is perfective попросить, so it refers to a single completed action in the future.

You normally use просит in a description of what is happening now or what usually happens. You’d use попросит when you’re talking about a future event in a sequence of actions, e.g.:

Сначала учитель войдёт в класс, потом попросит внимания.
First the teacher will enter the classroom, then (he/she) will ask for attention.

Why is началом in the instrumental case after перед?

The preposition перед (“before, in front of”) requires the instrumental case:

перед домом – in front of the house
перед уроком – before the lesson
перед началом – before the beginning

So начало (nominative) → началом (instrumental) because it follows перед:

перед началом урока = “before the beginning of the lesson”

Why is урока in the genitive after началом?

The phrase начало урока literally means “the beginning of the lesson”.

Russian often uses the genitive to show this kind of “of X” relationship:

начало фильма – the beginning of the film
конец дня – the end of the day
середина урока – the middle of the lesson

So:

начало – “beginning” (nominative)
урок → урока (genitive) – “of the lesson”

Then перед началом урока is built as:

перед (preposition governing instrumental)
началом (instrumental of начало)
урока (genitive dependent on начало: “beginning of the lesson”)

Could we just say перед уроком instead of перед началом урока? Is there a difference?

Yes, перед уроком is also perfectly correct and very natural.

перед уроком – before the lesson (in general)
перед началом урока – before the start of the lesson (a bit more specific, slightly more formal or precise in style)

In everyday speech, many people would simply say:

Учитель просит внимания перед уроком.

Перед началом урока can sound a little more formal or textbook‑like, emphasizing the moment right before the lesson begins.

What is the difference between перед началом урока and до начала урока?

Both can correspond to “before the beginning of the lesson”, but there is a nuance:

перед началом урока – usually implies right before, close in time to the start.
Think: just before the lesson starts.
до начала урока – means “any time before the beginning”, not necessarily right before.
It can be much earlier.

Examples:

Учитель просит подготовить тетради перед началом урока.
Get your notebooks ready right before class starts.
Домашнее задание нужно сделать до начала урока.
Homework must be done before the lesson starts (could be the night before, morning, etc.).

What is the gender and declension of учитель? Can it be used for a female teacher?

Учитель is:

Grammatical gender: masculine
Declension: 2nd declension masculine with the ending -ь

Rough declension (singular):

Nominative: учитель – the teacher (subject)
Genitive: учителя – of the teacher
Dative: учителю – to the teacher
Accusative: учителя – (see) the teacher
Instrumental: учителем – with the teacher
Prepositional: (о) учителе – about the teacher

For a female teacher, Russian often uses the specifically feminine noun:

учительница

In everyday speech, if you know the teacher is a woman, you can say:

Учительница просит внимания перед началом урока.

But grammatically, учитель (masculine form) can still be used as a professional title regardless of actual gender, especially in more formal or neutral contexts.

How is this sentence pronounced, and where is the stress in each word?

Stresses (marked by capital letters in the stressed syllable):

УчИтель – u‑CHI‑tel’
прОсит – PRÓ‑sit
внимАния – vni‑MÁ‑ni‑ya
пЕред – PÉ‑red
начАлом – na‑CHÁ‑lom
урОка – oo‑RÓ‑ka

Full sentence:
УчИтель прОсит внимАния пЕред начАлом урОка.

Is there any special word order rule here? Could I move перед началом урока to another position?

Russian word order is relatively flexible. All of these are grammatically correct:

Учитель просит внимания перед началом урока.
Перед началом урока учитель просит внимания.
Учитель перед началом урока просит внимания.

Differences:

Version 1 (original) is very neutral and natural.
Version 2 slightly emphasizes the time frame (“Before the lesson starts, the teacher asks for attention”).
Version 3 puts a bit of emphasis on when the teacher does the asking (in the middle of the sentence, but still fine and neutral).

For learners, sticking to the original word order is perfectly good and sounds natural.

Why isn’t there any article like “the” before учитель or урок?

Russian does not have articles (no “a/an”, no “the”). The idea of definiteness or indefiniteness is expressed by:

Context
Word order
Sometimes pronouns (этот, тот, какой‑то, etc.)

So Учитель просит внимания перед началом урока can correspond to:

“The teacher asks for attention before the lesson starts.”
In some contexts, it might even be read like “A teacher asks for attention before the lesson starts,” if no specific teacher is meant.

You don’t need to add anything to mark “the” or “a” in Russian; it’s understood from context.

What exactly does урок mean here? Is it “lesson”, “class”, or something else?

Урок has a few related meanings in Russian:

A lesson / class period at school or a course:
- У нас завтра три урока. – We have three classes tomorrow.
The content of a lesson (“lesson” in a more abstract sense):
- Урок математики. – A math lesson.
Sometimes: a moral / life lesson:
- Это был хороший урок для меня. – That was a good lesson for me.

In this sentence, урок is clearly a class period / lesson at school. So перед началом урока = “before the class starts / before the start of the lesson.”