Breakdown of Студентам придётся прочитать дополнительный текст, чтобы сдать экзамен?
студент
student (m)
текст
text
прочитать
to read (perfective)
экзамен
exam
чтобы
in order to
сдать
to pass (an exam)
прийтись
to have to (perfective)
дополнительный
additional
Questions & Answers about Студентам придётся прочитать дополнительный текст, чтобы сдать экзамен?
Why is "students" in the Dative case (студентам) instead of the Nominative (студенты)?
This is because of the word придётся (will have to). It is an impersonal verb of necessity. In Russian, the person who "has to" or "is forced to" do something with this verb is always put in the Dative case, because grammatically they are the receiver of the necessity, not the active subject.
How do we know this sentence is in the future tense?
The verb придётся is the future tense form. If this were a regular habit in the present ("the students have to"), you would use приходится. If it happened in the past ("the students had to"), you would use пришлось.
Why are we using the perfective verbs прочитать and сдать here?
Both actions focus on a single, successfully completed result. They need to finish reading the text (прочитать) in order to successfully pass the exam (сдать). If we used the imperfective сдавать, it would just mean "to take the exam" without necessarily implying they will pass it!
What does чтобы do in this sentence, and why is it followed by an infinitive?
The word чтобы means "in order to" here and expresses the purpose of the action. When the person doing the action in the main clause (the students) is the same as the person doing the action in the purpose clause, you simply follow чтобы with an infinitive verb like сдать.
дополнительный текст is the direct object being read. Why don't the endings change for the Accusative case?
текст is a masculine inanimate noun. In Russian, masculine inanimate nouns (and the adjectives attached to them) have an Accusative form that looks exactly like the Nominative form. If they had to read a feminine noun like книга (book), it would change to the Accusative form дополнительную книгу.
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