Learn Hardcore Russian: Его мечта — открыть свою маленькую пекарню. - His dream is to open his own small bakery.

In the present tense, Russian usually omits the verb “to be.” A dash often marks the link between subject and predicate when both are nouns or an infinitive phrase:

Его мечта — открыть… = His dream is to open… You’ll also hear/see: Его мечта — это открыть… (more colloquial/emphatic). Writing without the dash (Его мечта открыть…) occurs but the dash is preferred for clarity. Don’t use есть here in modern style.

Can I say “Он мечтает открыть свою маленькую пекарню” instead?

Yes. Его мечта — открыть… (His dream is to open…) and Он мечтает открыть… (He dreams of opening…) are both natural. The first uses a noun phrase; the second uses the verb мечтать.

Why is it свою and not его before “пекарню”?

Свой is the reflexive possessive “one’s own.” Use it when the possessor is the subject of the clause; it avoids ambiguity.

открыть свою пекарню = open his own bakery (subject = the owner).
открыть его пекарню can sound like “open his (some other man’s) bakery,” or at least is ambiguous.

But the grammatical subject is мечта, not “he.” How can свою refer to him?

In infinitival clauses, свой typically refers to the logical subject (the understood doer of the infinitive). Here, the understood doer of открыть is “he,” so свою correctly points back to him.

Could I use собственную instead of свою?

Yes: открыть собственную маленькую пекарню. Собственный strongly emphasizes “one’s very own.” You may even hear свою собственную for extra emphasis, though it’s a bit redundant.

Why are the endings -ую and -ю in маленькую пекарню?

Because открыть takes a direct object in the accusative case:

пекарня (fem.) → accusative singular: пекарню (-ю).
маленький (adj.) → feminine accusative singular: маленькую (-ую).
свой → feminine accusative singular: свою (-ю). All three agree with each other in gender, number, and case.

What is the gender and basic declension of пекарня?

It’s feminine. Singular forms you’re most likely to need:

Nom: пекáрня
Gen: пекáрни
Dat: пекáрне
Acc: пекáрню
Instr: пекáрней
Prep: о пекáрне

Why perfective открыть and not imperfective открывать?

Perfective (открыть) expresses a single, completed goal—exactly what a “dream” typically targets. Открывать would suggest repeated/habitual action (“to be opening [regularly]”), which doesn’t fit the meaning here.

Could I use иметь instead of открыть?

Yes, with a nuance shift:

Его мечта — открыть свою маленькую пекарню = the dream is the act of starting it.
Его мечта — иметь свою маленькую пекарню = the dream is to own/have one (focus on possession).

How do I pronounce and stress the sentence?

егó мечтá — откры́ть свою́ мáленькую пекáрню.

Stresses: его́, мечта́, откры́ть, свою́, ма́ленькую, пека́рню.
Unstressed “о” (e.g., in от-) sounds like “a.” Initial его is pronounced like “yivó.”

Are there synonyms for пекарня?

пекарня: bakery (can be a bakehouse and/or a shop).
булочная: “bread shop,” a somewhat older term for a retail bakery.
кондитерская: pastry shop/confectioner’s (cakes, sweets).

How would this look in the past or with an explicit copula?

Several natural options:

Past, nominative: Его мечта была открыть свою маленькую пекарню.
Past, instrumental (common with быть/являться): Его мечтой было открыть свою маленькую пекарню.
With являться (formal, present): Его мечтой является открытие своей маленькой пекарни. (note the noun открытие
- genitive)

Does Russian need an article (a/the) here?

Russian has no articles. маленькую пекарню is understood as “a small bakery” by default. If you need to specify “this/that,” use demonstratives: эту/ту пекарню.

Can I change the word order (e.g., put the object before the verb)?

Russian allows it for emphasis: Его мечта — свою маленькую пекарню открыть. Neutral, most common order is verb + object: … — открыть свою маленькую пекарню.