Breakdown of Пусть он помолчит и послушает учителя.
и
and
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
учитель
teacher
послушать
to listen for a while (perfective)
пусть
let
помолчать
to be silent for a while
Questions & Answers about Пусть он помолчит и послушает учителя.
Why is помолчит used here instead of the imperfective молчит?
The prefix по- is added to the imperfective verb молчать (to be silent) to make it perfective. In this lesson's context, по- acts as a delimitative prefix. This means it limits the action to a short amount of time, giving the exact meaning of 'to be quiet for a little while.'
Does the по- in послушает also mean 'for a short time' like it does in помолчит?
Yes, it does. While послушать is considered the standard perfective partner to слушать (to listen), the prefix по- originally carried that same delimitative meaning. In this sentence, both verbs perfectly pair up to suggest doing these actions for just a short bit.
Why are the verbs помолчит and послушает conjugated in the future tense?
The particle пусть translates to 'let' and is used to give third-person commands (let him, let them). To tell someone to do a specific, completed action, пусть is followed by a perfective verb. Since perfective verbs do not have a present tense form in Russian, they naturally use their future tense form here.
Why does учитель (teacher) end in -я in this sentence?
It is the direct object of the verb послушает (will listen to), so it must be in the accusative case. Because учитель is an animate masculine noun (a living being), its accusative form looks exactly like its genitive form, which takes the -я ending.
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