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)
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?