Questions & Answers about Ученик слушает учителя.
Why is there no word for "to" in this sentence? In English we say "listens to".
The Russian verb слушать (to listen) takes a direct object without needing a preposition. So, in Russian, you literally say "listens the teacher" rather than "listens to the teacher".
Why is the word for teacher spelled учителя here instead of учитель?
Because the teacher is the direct object receiving the action (the person being listened to), the word must be in the accusative case. For living masculine nouns (like people and animals), the accusative case ending is the same as the genitive case. Since учитель ends in a soft sign (ь), it changes to -я, becoming учителя.
Could I use the word студент instead of ученик?
That depends on their age! Ученик is a pupil or schoolchild (usually in primary or high school). A студент is specifically a university or college student.
Why does слушает end in -ет?
This is the third-person singular (he/she/it) form of the verb слушать (to listen). Since the subject ученик is a "he", you take the dictionary form слушать, drop the -ть, and add the ending -ет.
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