Breakdown of Режиссёр попросил, чтобы вы показали сильные эмоции.
вы
you (plural)
показать
to show (perfective)
сильный
strong
попросить
to ask (to request)
режиссёр
director (film, stage)
чтобы
in order to
эмоция
emotion
Questions & Answers about Режиссёр попросил, чтобы вы показали сильные эмоции.
Why does the Russian sentence use the past tense показали when the English translation says to show?
This is how Russian expresses indirect commands. When you want someone else to do something, you use чтобы followed by the past tense of the verb. Even though показали is grammatically past tense, after чтобы it acts like an instruction and translates to the English infinitive.
Why is there a comma before чтобы?
In Russian, a comma is strictly required before conjunctions like чтобы and что when they introduce a new part of the sentence. Here, it separates the main action (the director asking) from the requested action (you showing).
Could I use a form of спрашивать instead of попросил to mean asked?
No, because they mean different things. The verb попросить means to request an action or ask for a favor. The verb спрашивать means to ask a question to get information. Since the director is requesting that you do something, you must use попросил.
What case is сильные эмоции in, and why didn't the endings change?
It is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the action (it is the thing being shown). For inanimate plural nouns and their matching adjectives, the accusative case endings are identical to the nominative (dictionary) form, which is why they look unchanged.
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