Офисная работа моего друга кажется скучной, но ему нравится, что она спокойная.

In Russian, when you say “the office job of my friend”, the “of my friend” part is expressed by the genitive case, not by a simple nominative.

• Офисная работа моего друга literally = office work of my friend
• моего друга is genitive singular masculine:
  • мой друг (nominative) → моего друга (genitive)

So:

• мой друг = my friend (as the subject: My friend works…)
• моего друга = of my friend (showing possession: the job of my friend).

That’s why моего друга is required here.

моего друга is in the genitive singular masculine.

You can see it from both words:

• Pronoun мой declines:
  • Nominative: мой (my)
  • Genitive: моего
• Noun друг declines:
  • Nominative: друг
  • Genitive: друга

Common signs of genitive singular masculine:

• Adjectives/pronouns often end in -ого / -его (here: моего)
• Nouns of this type (consonant-ending masculine nouns) often end in -а / -я in the genitive (here: друга)

Functionally, genitive here shows possession: работа кого? → моего друга.

Скучной is in the instrumental case, feminine singular.

With verbs like быть (to be) and казаться (to seem), Russian often uses the instrumental case for the “predicative” adjective, especially when describing how something appears or feels:

• Она кажется скучной. = She/it seems boring.
  
  • она – nominative (subject, feminine)
  • скучной – instrumental feminine singular

Pattern:

• Masculine: Он кажется скучным.
• Feminine: Она кажется скучной.
• Neuter: Оно кажется скучным.
• Plural: Они кажутся скучными.

Using instrumental after казаться is the standard, neutral way to say something “seems” a certain way.

You can sometimes hear Она кажется скучная, but:

• Она кажется скучной (instrumental) is:

  • Standard
  • Neutral and natural in most contexts
  • The form you should learn and actively use

• Она кажется скучная (nominative) can:

  • Sound more colloquial or less polished
  • Be perceived as slightly less standard in careful speech
  • Occur in spontaneous or conversational Russian

So for a learner, treat кажется + instrumental (кажется скучной) as the correct basic pattern.

Russian often expresses “liking” with the verb нравиться in a reverse construction compared to English:

• Ему нравится работа.
  Literally: To him is pleasing the job.
  Natural English: He likes the job.

Structure:

• The person who likes something → dative case:
  • ему = to him
• The thing liked → subject in nominative:
  • нравится работа (singular)
  • нравятся книги (plural)

So:

• Ему нравится, что она спокойная.
  = To him is pleasing the fact that it is calm.
  → He likes that it’s calm.

If you say он нравится, it means “he is liked / he is pleasing (to someone)”, not “he likes”. For example:

• Он ей нравится. = She likes him.

Ему is the dative case of он (“he”):

• он – nominative (subject form)
• ему – dative (to him, for him)

Because нравиться works like “to be pleasing to someone”, the person is expressed in dative:

• Кому нравится? → Ему нравится. = It’s pleasing to him.

So:

• Ему нравится, что она спокойная.
  Literally: To him is pleasing that it is calm.
  → He likes that it’s calm.

Here что functions as the conjunction “that”, introducing a subordinate clause:

• ему нравится, что она спокойная
  = He likes that it is calm.

It’s not the question word “what?” in this sentence. It’s like English “that” in:

• “I like that it is quiet here.”

Optionally, Russian can be more explicit and say:

• Ему нравится то, что она спокойная.
  = Literally: He likes the fact that it is calm.

But ему нравится, что она спокойная is completely natural and common.

These two parts follow different grammatical rules:

1. Она спокойная

   • This is a normal “X is Y” sentence inside the subordinate clause.
   • Subject: она (she/it) – nominative, referring back to работа (feminine).
   • Predicate adjective: спокойная – nominative feminine singular.
   • Pattern:
     
     • Она красивая. – She is beautiful.
     • Она спокойная. – She is calm.

2. кажется скучной

   • Here, казаться tends to take the adjective in instrumental case:
     • кажется скучной (feminine instrumental)
   • Pattern:
     
     • Она кажется интересной. – She seems interesting.
     • Она кажется скучной. – She seems boring.

So:

• After быть / implicit “is” → nominative: она спокойная.
• After казаться → instrumental: она кажется спокойной / скучной / интересной.

Russian, like English, avoids repeating the same noun when it’s obvious from context. We already know we’re talking about офисная работа, which is feminine, so we can use она (“she/it”):

• …моего друга кажется скучной, но ему нравится, что она спокойная.
  = “…seems boring, but he likes that it is calm.”

Using работа again would be grammatically correct but stylistically heavy:

• …ему нравится, что работа спокойная. – also correct
  But она is shorter and more natural in this sentence.

Both relate to an “office job,” but there is a nuance:

• офисная работа

  • More like “office-type job”, a job whose nature is office work (paperwork, computer, meetings, etc.).
  • It’s a set phrase, similar to “office work” as a category.

• работа в офисе

  • Literally “work in the office” – emphasizes the location (where he works), not the type of job.
  • Could be any job carried out in an office building.

In this sentence, офисная работа моего друга suggests the kind of job he has (an office job), not just the physical place.

The -ся / -сь ending usually marks a reflexive or intransitive verb form.

• казаться ≠ “to show oneself” in everyday meaning; it means “to seem, to appear (to be)”.
  • Это кажется скучным. – This seems boring.
• The non-reflexive казать is very old-fashioned/archaic in modern Russian (to show, to tell) and is only really seen in a few fixed expressions (e.g., показать from the same root is common: “to show”).

So in practice, just learn казаться as the normal verb meaning “to seem”.

Russian word order is relatively flexible, and you can move elements around, but the given order is the default, neutral one.

Possible variants:

• Ему нравится, что она спокойная. – neutral, standard.
• Что она спокойная, ему нравится. – emphasizes “that it is calm”; sounds more contrastive or expressive.
• Нравится ему, что она спокойная. – shifts emphasis to нравится or ему; more emotional or stylistic.

For learners, stick to:

• Ему нравится, что она спокойная.

It is clear, natural, and uses the most typical order.

Yes, both кажется and нравится here are present tense, 3rd person singular:

• кажется – “seems”
• нравится – “is pleasing / likes”

To put the whole sentence in the past, you change the verbs to past tense:

• Офисная работа моего друга казалась скучной, но ему нравилось, что она спокойная.
  = My friend’s office job seemed boring, but he liked that it was calm.

Changes:

• кажется → казалась (past, feminine, because subject работа is feminine)
• нравится → нравилось (past neuter; impersonal-like construction with a whole clause as subject)

Everything else (cases, endings of скучной, спокойная) stays the same.