Breakdown of Я сомневаюсь, чтобы он услышал эту чушь от коллеги.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
я
I
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
коллега
colleague
от
from
чтобы
in order to
сомневаться
to doubt / to hesitate
услышать
to hear (perfective)
чушь
nonsense
Questions & Answers about Я сомневаюсь, чтобы он услышал эту чушь от коллеги.
Why use чтобы instead of что here, and why is the verb услышал in the past tense?
After verbs of strong doubt like сомневаюсь (I doubt) or verbs of denial, Russian often uses чтобы instead of что to emphasize how unlikely or unreal the event is. Whenever you use чтобы as a conjunction, the verb in its clause must take the past tense (услышал), regardless of the actual time frame being discussed.
Would it be wrong to just say Я сомневаюсь, что он услышал...?
Not at all! Using что is perfectly correct and very common. Choosing чтобы just adds an extra layer of skepticism, making the idea that he heard this nonsense feel even more hypothetical or absurd.
Чушь (nonsense) is the direct object of the verb. Why doesn't its ending change?
Чушь is a feminine noun that ends in a soft sign. For these types of feminine nouns, the accusative case (used for direct objects) looks exactly the same as the nominative dictionary form. You can tell it is in the accusative case here because the demonstrative pronoun attached to it changes to эту.
Why does the word for colleague become коллеги after от?
The preposition от (from) always requires the genitive case. Even though коллега can refer to a man or a woman, its endings always follow the grammar rules for nouns ending in -а. In the genitive case, that -а changes to -и.
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