My dear patrons and readers, I want to thank everyone who helped me test a new feature on my website: the “What’s Your Level” quiz. I appreciate those of you who took the time to give me detailed feedback — you are amazing!
Designing a comprehensive test was my personal challenge, but the most challenging part was coding a plugin for my website. I know that in our era of no-coders and zero-coders, we’re all expected to create something digital, even those who, like me, can’t write a single line of code. You can imagine how high my self-esteem soared when I started getting “It works fine!” messages from you. I was so happy and proud that you mostly approved of both the test and the way it worked online.
Of all the questions I added to the test, one turned out to be exceptionally difficult. Out of 25 people who took the test, 18 couldn’t choose the right conjunction in the sentence “Он сказал, _____ я обязательно посмотрел эту комедию.” The options were ‘что’, ‘чтобы’, and ‘для’, and most of you (72%) chose ‘что’. The correct answer, of course, is ‘чтобы’, and I think this conjunction deserves a post because it’s unfairly overlooked in Russian textbooks and courses for Russian as a foreign language.
Conjunctions are words that connect clauses in complex sentences. Russian is notorious for having a variety of long conjunctions, but both ‘что’ and ‘чтобы’ are relatively nice and simple words. Or they seem to be.
Что for Explaining the First Clause
Even if you’re a beginner, you know ‘что’ as a question word — what. But it’s also a conjunction that works similarly to English ‘that’. Compare these two sentences:
- Я знаю, что ты думаешь. I know what you think.
- Я знаю, что ты думаешь обо мне плохо. I know that you think badly of me.
Do you see the difference?
Here’s an even more confusing example:
- Я знаю, что ты пьёшь. I know what you drink. (что here is a pronoun)
- Я знаю, что ты пьёшь. I know that you have drinking problems. (что here is a conjunction)
In actual conversation, in the first example, I’d put a slight emphasis on что, while in the second example, the emphasis is on ‘пьёшь’.
Что as a conjunction is used when the second clause explains the first one: Я знаю… I know — what do you know? — что ты думаешь обо мне плохо or что ты пьёшь.
This is the most common, but not the only way to use ‘что’ as a conjunction. Sometimes it replaces ‘как’ (like):
- Твои слова, что соль на раны. Your words are like salt on wounds.
Also, it may mean ‘since’ or ‘for’:
- Наверное, ты прекрасно выступил, что люди тебе аплодировали десять минут! You must have performed wonderfully for people to applaud you for ten minutes!
These last examples are considered advanced Russian, and honestly, not many native speakers talk like that today — only those who read a lot and have impressive vocabularies.
The tricky question in my quiz had one hint: the word обязательно made ‘что’ impossible in that sentence.
- Он сказал, что я посмотрел эту комедию. He said that I watched this comedy.
This is a perfect sentence where the second part explains the first one. - Он сказал, чтобы я обязательно посмотрел эту комедию. He said that I should definitely watch this comedy.
‘Обязательно’, meaning ‘should definitely’, suggests that something else is going on in that sentence. This is not an explanation — it’s an expression of a wish or an order, for which the only right choice would be ‘чтобы’.
Чтобы for Purpose and Wish
The conjunction ‘чтобы’ is often used when the second clause describes the purpose or goal of the action in the first clause.
- Я пришла, чтобы рассказать тебе новость. I came to tell you some news.
- Он купил компьютер, чтобы работать из дома. He bought a computer so he could work from home.
- Мои соседи продают свой дом, чтобы не слышать мою игру на пианино. My neighbors are selling their house so they don’t have to hear me play the piano.
You probably noticed that in all these examples, the second clause has verbs in the infinitive. So the structure of a complex sentence with чтобы for expressing purpose is the following:
[First clause with subject], чтобы + infinitive verb
A very important note: This type of sentence only works when the subject is the same in both clauses.
- It’s me who came (я пришла), and it’s me who is going to tell the news (чтобы рассказать).
- It’s him who bought a computer (он купил компьютер), and it’s him who’s going to work from home (чтобы работать из дома).
- It’s my neighbors who are selling their house (Мои соседи продают дом), and it’s them who hope to get some relief after moving farther away from my piano lessons (чтобы не слышать…).
If the subjects in the two clauses are different, we need to put the verbs in the second clause into the past tense:
- Я пришла, чтобы ты рассказал мне новость. I came so you could tell me the news.
- Он купил мне компьютер, чтобы я работала из дома. He bought me a computer so I could work from home.
- Мои соседи продают свой дом, чтобы я не слышала их игры на пианино. My neighbors are selling their house so that I won’t hear them playing the piano.
The past tense doesn’t actually mean that the actions in those sentences happened in the past. The past tense here indicates the switch from the real world to the world of intentions, desires, and wishes.
The structure of this type of sentence looks like this:
[First clause with S1], чтобы + [S2 + past tense verb]
We don’t always describe real things in our speech. We often create unreal worlds to show how we want things to be. And for that, Russian often uses forms of the past tense. Think about it as a psychological hack: you spell out things as if they already happened when you really want them to happen. (Mind you, this isn’t an explanation — this is only a mnemonic technique that may help you memorize the rule: turn the verbs into the past tense in sentences with чтобы that express wishes or orders).
- Я хочу, чтобы ты ушёл. I want you to go.
- Традиция требует, чтобы все гости пили водку. Tradition requires that all guests drink vodka.
- Делай так, чтобы все завидовали! Make everyone jealous!
So when expressing wishes, demands, or orders, ‘чтобы + past tense’ is a very common way to do that:
- … хочу, чтобы ты … (past tense)
- … требует, чтобы он … (past tense)
- … нужно / важно/ можно, чтобы вы … (past tense)
The verb ‘сказать’ has a dual nature: it describes a simple act of speaking or reporting facts, but it can also be used to convey orders, wishes, and requirements. Look at the example below:
- Кот сказал, что ты его покормил. The cat said that you fed him.
- Кот сказал, чтобы ты его покормил. The cat said you should feed him.
When we simply add ‘бы’ to ‘что’, we turn the sentence that states a fact into an order!
And in my quiz question, обязательно clearly showed that the second clause is a suggestion, not a reference to what had happened.
| Conjunction | Use Case | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| что | Explains the first clause | Я знаю, что ты думаешь. | Acts like English “that” |
| чтобы | Expresses purpose or wish | Я пришла, чтобы рассказать. | Uses infinitive (same subject) or past tense (different subjects) |
Now you know how to handle these tricky conjunctions — ‘что’ and ‘чтобы’. With some practice, you’ll find that it’s not as difficult as it may sound. You may still feel a bit confused, and in that case, I’ve prepared a cheatsheet that will help you quickly refresh your memory and choose the right word and the right grammatical forms. My patrons on Patreon will receive it for free (and you’re very welcome to join our cozy club here), and it’s also available in my shop for instant download for $4.99.
Happy language learning!