Breakdown of Министр попросил, чтобы посол вернулся.
попросить
to ask (to request)
вернуться
to return (pf)
чтобы
in order to
посол
the ambassador
министр
the minister
Questions & Answers about Министр попросил, чтобы посол вернулся.
Why is вернулся in the past tense if the minister wants him to return in the future?
When you express a request or command for someone else to do something, Russian uses чтобы followed by the past tense. Even though the action hasn't happened yet, the grammar rule for чтобы requires the past tense form (вернулся) because the person doing the action (посол) is different from the person asking (министр).
Could we just use the infinitive and say чтобы посол вернуться?
No, you can only use an infinitive after чтобы if the subject remains exactly the same in both parts of the sentence. Because we have a new subject (посол), you must use the past tense. You would only use the infinitive if the minister was doing both actions, like 'The minister left in order to return'.
Why does вернулся end in -ся?
The verb вернуться (to return or come back) takes the reflexive ending -ся because the action is intransitive—the ambassador is physically coming back himself. If you used вернул without the -ся, it would mean he returned an object, like a document or a book.
Why use the perfective verb попросил instead of the imperfective просил?
Using the perfective попросил shows that the minister made a single, specific request that is now complete. If you used просил, it would imply he was asking repeatedly or that the asking was an ongoing process in the past.
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