Мой брат делится опытом с сестрой.

My brother shares his experience with his sister.

Breakdown of Мой брат делится опытом с сестрой.

• мой: my
• с: with
• сестра: the sister
• брат: the brother
• делиться: to share
• опыт: the experience

Questions & Answers about Мой брат делится опытом с сестрой.

Why is it делится and not делит in this sentence?

Russian has two different verbs here:

• делить что-то (non‑reflexive) = to divide, to split something
  
  • Он делит пирог. – He is dividing the cake.
• делиться чем‑то (с кем‑то) (reflexive, with -ся) = to share something (with someone), to open up, to tell about something

In Мой брат делится опытом с сестрой, we mean My brother shares his experience with his sister, not My brother divides experience. So Russian must use the reflexive verb делиться, not делить.

The form делится is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• of the verb делиться: он дели́тся – he shares.

What does the -ся ending in делится mean?

The -ся (or -сь after a vowel) is the reflexive ending. Historically it comes from the pronoun себя (oneself), but in modern Russian it often changes the meaning of the verb rather than literally meaning “oneself”.

With делить vs делиться:

• делить = to divide / to portion out something
• делиться (чем? с кем?) = to share something with someone; to tell someone about something you have / feel / know

So делится = he shares (something with someone).

Other common pairs:

• мыть – to wash something
  мыться – to wash oneself
• учить – to teach / to learn (something)
  учиться – to study / to learn (in general, at school, etc.)

Why is it опытом and not опыт or опыта?

Опытом is the instrumental case of опыт (experience).

The verb делиться always uses this pattern:

• делиться чем? – instrumental case
• делиться с кем? – с
  • instrumental case

So we must say:

• делиться опытом – to share (one’s) experience
• делиться знаниями – to share knowledge
• делиться деньгами – to share money

The basic form опыт is nominative (dictionary form). The genitive опыта would be used with other verbs/prepositions, but делиться specifically requires the instrumental: чем? → опытом.

Why is сестрой used here instead of сестра or сестру?

Again, it’s because of the verb делиться.

The pattern is:

• делиться с кем? – with с
  • instrumental case

The noun сестра (sister) in instrumental singular is сестрой:

• Nominative: сестра
• Instrumental: сестрой (with (a) sister)

So:

• делиться с сестрой – to share with (one’s) sister

Using сестра or сестру here would be grammatically wrong, because с + a person after делиться always needs the instrumental.

Do we need to say своей сестрой to make it clear that it’s his sister?

No, Russian does not have to repeat possession when it’s obvious from context.

Мой брат делится опытом с сестрой will normally be understood as:

• My brother shares his experience with his (our) sister.

You can say:

• Мой брат делится опытом со своей сестрой.

This is also correct and a bit more explicit, but in most natural contexts Russians simply say с сестрой, because:

• Мой брат and сестрой in one sentence very strongly suggest that they are siblings of the same family, unless the context says otherwise.

Could this sentence mean “My brother and (my) sister share experience with each other”?

No; as written, it has one subject:

• Мой брат – subject (who is doing the action)
• делится – verb
• опытом – what he is sharing
• с сестрой – with whom

So the sentence clearly means:

• My brother shares his experience with (his/our) sister.

If you wanted to say that both brother and sister share experience with each other, you’d say, for example:

• Мой брат и сестра делятся опытом друг с другом.
  My brother and (my) sister share their experience with each other.

What is the difference between делиться and поделиться?

Both mean to share, but they differ in aspect:

• делиться – imperfective
  
  • Focus on the process, duration, or repeated action.
  • Он часто делится опытом. – He often shares his experience.
• поделиться – perfective
  
  • Focus on a single, completed act of sharing.
  • Он поделится опытом с сестрой. – He will (at some point) share his experience with his sister.

So, if you talk about something happening now or regularly, or you don’t care about completion, you use делиться.
If you care about one whole act (he shared/ will share once), you use поделиться.

How do I say this sentence in the past and future?

Starting from Мой брат делится опытом с сестрой (My brother shares his experience with his sister), you get:

Past (imperfective):

• Мой брат делился опытом с сестрой.
  My brother was sharing / used to share his experience with his sister.

Future (imperfective, focus on process/habit):

• Мой брат будет делиться опытом с сестрой.
  My brother will be sharing / will (habitually) share his experience with his sister.

Future (perfective, one completed act):

• Мой брат поделится опытом с сестрой.
  My brother will share his experience with his sister (once / at some point).

Is the word order fixed, or can I move words around?

Russian word order is flexible, though not random. Different orders change what is emphasized.

Neutral, most common:

• Мой брат делится опытом с сестрой.

Possible variants:

• Мой брат с сестрой делится опытом.
  Slightly more focus on the pair my brother with (his) sister.

• С сестрой мой брат делится опытом.
  Focuses on with the sister (as a topic), something like: It is with his sister that my brother shares his experience.

• Опытом с сестрой делится мой брат.
  Emphasis on мой брат (who is doing the sharing), sounds more stylistic/literary.

All of these are grammatically correct; choice depends on what you want to emphasize.

How would the sentence change if the subject were “my sister” instead of “my brother”?

You need to change the possessive pronoun мой to agree in gender with сестра.

• Моя сестра делится опытом с братом.
  My sister shares her experience with (her/my) brother.

Changes:

• Мой брат (masc.) → Моя сестра (fem.)
• To keep the family pair, с сестрой (with (his) sister) → с братом (with (her) brother).

What exactly does опыт mean here? Can I say it in the plural?

In this sentence, опыт is a mass noun: experience in general, usually life or professional experience.

• делиться опытом – to share (one’s) experience

The plural опыты usually means:

• 1. scientific experiments
  – эксперименты
  
  • физические опыты – physics experiments
• 2. specific kinds / instances of experience
  , in more specialized or literary contexts

In normal everyday speech about life or work, you almost always use the singular:

• делиться опытом (not опытами).

How do you pronounce делится and сестрой?

Approximate pronunciation with stress marked:

• делится – дели́тся

  • Stress on -ли́-: de‑LÍ‑ts‑ya
  • [dye‑LEE‑ts‑ya]

• сестрой – сестро́й

  • Stress on -ро́й: sis‑TRÓY
  • [sis‑TROY]

In normal Russian writing, stress marks (´) are not shown; they’re added only in dictionaries or textbooks.