Learn Hardcore Russian: В свободной стране люди могут честно говорить о прошлом, настоящем и будущем. - In a free country people can honestly talk about the past, the present, and the future.

The basic form (nominative) is страна (country).
After the preposition в meaning in (location), Russian usually uses the prepositional case.
Feminine nouns ending in -а in the nominative typically change to -е in the prepositional:
- страна → в стране
- комната → в комнате
- Россия → в России

So в свободной стране literally is “in (a) free country,” with стране in the prepositional case to show location.

Why is it свободной стране and not свободная страна?

Свободной is the adjective свободный (free) in the feminine, singular, prepositional form, agreeing with стране.

Adjectives in Russian must match the noun in:

gender (here: feminine),
number (singular),
case (prepositional).

Patterns:

Nominative: свободная страна — a free country (subject of the sentence)
Prepositional (location): в свободной стране — in a free country

Because the noun стране is in the prepositional case, the adjective must also be prepositional: свободной.

Why do we use могут and not может in люди могут честно говорить?

Могут is the 3rd person plural form of мочь (can, to be able to), and it must agree with the subject люди (people), which is plural.

он может — he can
она может — she can
человек может — a person can
они могут — they can
люди могут — people can

So:

люди могут = people can
люди может would be grammatically wrong.

Why is it могут говорить and not говорят? What is the role of могут here?

Могут is a modal verb (can / be able to) and it is followed by the infinitive говорить (to speak).

The structure is:

мочь (conjugated) + infinitive
люди могут говорить = people can speak

If you said:

люди говорят честно = people speak honestly (statement of fact, no idea of “can / are allowed to”)

With могут говорить, the sentence expresses possibility or freedom: in a free country, they are allowed / able to speak honestly.

Why do we use говорить and not сказать here?

Говорить and сказать are both usually translated as “to speak” or “to say,” but they differ in aspect and typical use:

говорить — imperfective; to speak in general, to talk, to be in the process of speaking; repeated or ongoing action.
сказать — perfective; to say once, to tell (a single completed act).

In this sentence:

люди могут честно говорить focuses on the general ability/freedom to talk openly whenever they want.
If you said люди могут честно сказать, it would sound more like “people can (at some point) honestly say (something specific),” focusing on a single act.

For the idea “In a free country, people can honestly talk about…,” говорить (imperfective, general activity) is the natural choice.

Why is it честно and not честный or честная?

Честно is an adverb, meaning honestly. It describes how people speak.

честный — honest (masculine adjective)
честная — honest (feminine adjective)
честное — honest (neuter adjective)
честно — honestly (adverb)

In Russian, adverbs often end in -о, especially when they are formed from adjectives:

быстрый → быстро (fast → quickly)
тихий → тихо (quiet → quietly)
честный → честно (honest → honestly)

Since it modifies the verb говорить, we need the adverb form: честно говорить (to speak honestly).

What case are прошлом, настоящем, будущем in, and why do they all end in -ом?

All three words — прошлом, настоящем, будущем — are in the prepositional case, neuter singular, because they depend on о (about).

Base forms (nominative, neuter singular):

прошлое — the past
настоящее — the present
будущее — the future

With о (about), we use the prepositional:

о прошлом — about the past
о настоящем — about the present
о будущем — about the future

Neuter nouns (or substantivized adjectives) that end in -ое / -ее in the nominative often change to -ом / -ем in the prepositional:

новое → о новом
прошлое → о прошлом
будущее → о будущем

So the -ом / -ем endings are prepositional, not plural.

Why are прошлом, настоящем, будущем adjectives? Where is the noun like “time” or “events”?

Originally, прошлый, настоящий, будущий are adjectives meaning:

прошлый — past
настоящий — present
будущий — future

But in Russian, adjectives can be used on their own as nouns. This is called substantivization. Here:

прошлое literally “(the) past (thing)”
настоящее — “(the) present (thing)”
будущее — “(the) future (thing)”

In English, we also say “the past,” “the present,” “the future” without adding “time.” Russian is doing the same: the adjective form is used as a noun.

So о прошлом, настоящем и будущем means “about the past, (the) present, and (the) future” (implicitly about time, events, life, etc.).

Why is there only one о before the list: о прошлом, настоящем и будущем? Can I repeat о?

Both are possible:

о прошлом, настоящем и будущем (most common, natural)
о прошлом, о настоящем и о будущем (also correct, a bit more emphatic or stylistic)

Russian often uses a single preposition before a list of nouns in the same case. Repeating о is optional and can give extra rhythm or emphasis, but it’s not required.

Could we change the word order, for example to Люди в свободной стране могут честно говорить о прошлом, настоящем и будущем? Would it change the meaning?

Yes, you can say:

Люди в свободной стране могут честно говорить о прошлом, настоящем и будущем.

This is completely correct and means the same thing. Russian word order is more flexible than English. The usual tendencies:

Words placed earlier often get slightly more emphasis.
В свободной стране люди… puts more focus on “in a free country”.
Люди в свободной стране… puts a bit more focus on “people”.

But in this sentence, both orders are neutral and natural; the difference in emphasis is minimal.

Why isn’t there a word for “a” or “the” in в свободной стране? How do we know if it’s “a free country” or “the free country”?

Russian has no articles (no words like a / an / the). The noun страна can mean both:

a free country
the free country (from context)
free countries in some contexts (if plural is implied, but then grammar would show it)

The article meaning is understood from context and word order, not from a separate word.

In this sentence, the natural English translation is:

In a free country, people can honestly talk about the past, present and future.

But strictly grammatically, в свободной стране simply means “in free country,” and the listener infers a or the depending on context.