Breakdown of Я плохо терплю шум, поэтому учусь поздно ночью, когда в доме тихо.
Questions & Answers about Я плохо терплю шум, поэтому учусь поздно ночью, когда в доме тихо.
Literally, плохо терплю means “I endure badly” / “I tolerate badly”.
- терпеть = to endure, to tolerate, to put up with
- плохо = badly, poorly
So Я плохо терплю шум is literally “I tolerate noise badly”, but idiomatically it means something like:
- I don’t handle noise well.
- I can’t really stand noise. (though не выношу шум would be stronger: I can’t stand noise at all.)
This structure (плохо / плохо́й + терпеть) is quite common to describe low tolerance for something.
шум is in the accusative singular, functioning as the direct object of the verb терплю.
- Verb: терплю (I tolerate)
- Direct object: шум (noise)
For inanimate masculine nouns like шум, the nominative and accusative singular forms look the same:
- Nominative: шум есть — there is noise
- Accusative: терплю шум — I tolerate noise
So it looks like nominative, but grammatically it’s accusative here.
Yes, Я не люблю шум is possible, but there is a nuance difference:
Я плохо терплю шум
– Focus on low tolerance: noise quickly bothers or exhausts you.
– Implies it’s hard for you to put up with noise.Я не люблю шум
– Literally: I don’t like noise.
– Focus on preference rather than tolerance; it might annoy you, but it doesn’t necessarily suggest you can’t endure it.
In English terms, плохо терплю шум is closer to “I don’t handle noise well / I have a low tolerance for noise” than to just “I don’t like noise.”
Because поэтому connects two independent clauses:
- Clause 1: Я плохо терплю шум
- Clause 2: (Я) учусь поздно ночью, когда в доме тихо.
In Russian, when поэтому (“therefore, that’s why”) links two full clauses, we put a comma before it:
- Я плохо терплю шум, поэтому учусь поздно ночью.
You can think of it as:
- I don’t tolerate noise well, *therefore I study late at night.*
Yes, it’s omitted intentionally and naturally.
Russian often drops the subject pronoun when it’s clear from context. The verb ending already shows the subject:
- терплю → 1st person singular → I tolerate
- учусь → 1st person singular → I study
So repeating я would be grammatically fine but a bit unnecessary:
- Я плохо терплю шум, поэтому (я) учусь поздно ночью…
Both versions are correct; the version without the second я sounds very natural.
They come from two different verbs:
учиться (reflexive) → учусь
- Meaning: to study, to be a student, to learn (intransitive)
- Usage: no direct object with что?, usually:
- учиться в университете – to study at a university
- учиться по вечерам – to study in the evenings
- учиться водить машину – to learn to drive (with infinitive)
учить (non‑reflexive) → учу
- Meaning: to teach (someone), to learn/memorize (something specific)
- Uses a direct object:
- учу детей – I teach children
- учу слова – I’m learning/memorizing words
In поэтому учусь поздно ночью, the idea is I study (in general) late at night, so the reflexive учусь is correct.
Literally, поздно ночью = “late at night”.
- поздно – adverb late
- ночью – instrumental form of ночь, used adverbially: at night
Russian often uses the instrumental singular of times of day as adverbials of time:
- утром – in the morning
- днём – in the daytime
- вечером – in the evening
- ночью – at night
So поздно ночью is a natural way to say late at night.
Yes, you can say поздней ночью, and it’s grammatically correct.
Nuance:
поздно ночью
- Adverb (поздно) + ночью
- Very common, colloquial, neutral: late at night.
поздней ночью
- Adjective поздней (instrumental feminine) + ночью
- Slightly more descriptive, sometimes a bit more literary or “written”; also late at night.
In everyday speech, поздно ночью is more typical and sounds perfectly natural in this sentence.
Because ночью is the instrumental case used as an adverb of time, meaning at night.
Compare:
ночь – nominative: the night (as a noun)
- Ночь была тёплой. – The night was warm.
ночью – instrumental: at night (as an adverbial expression)
- Я работаю ночью. – I work at night.
In учусь поздно ночью, ночью answers the question когда? (when?), so it’s functioning as an adverbial, not as the subject or object.
когда в доме тихо literally means “when it is quiet in the house.”
Structure:
- когда – when (introduces a time clause)
- в доме – in the house (prepositional case)
- тихо – adverb/predicative, roughly quiet, quietly
In Russian, in the present tense, the verb “to be” (быть) is usually omitted:
- Full form (more explicit): когда в доме (есть) тихо
- Normal everyday form: когда в доме тихо
So тихо serves as the predicative (like “quiet” is in “it is quiet”), even though it looks like an adverb. Russian often uses forms like тихо / жарко / холодно / грустно in this way:
- Дома тихо. – It’s quiet at home.
- Здесь холодно. – It’s cold here.
They are close in meaning, but not identical:
в доме
- Literally: in the house
- Slightly more concrete, emphasizes inside the building.
- Used here to focus on the noise/quiet inside the house.
дома
- Usually means at home (location, more general).
- Дома тихо. – It’s quiet at home.
In this sentence, в доме тихо sounds very natural because we’re talking about how noisy/quiet it is inside the house, which affects when the speaker can study.
Yes, it describes a regular, habitual action.
In Russian, the present tense of imperfective verbs is used not only for what is happening right now, but also for habits and regular patterns:
- Я плохо терплю шум – In general, I don’t tolerate noise well.
- (Я) учусь поздно ночью – As a rule / usually, I study late at night.
- когда в доме тихо – whenever it is quiet in the house.
So this sentence describes the speaker’s typical behavior rather than something happening just once.