Learn Hardcore Russian: Мой брат хочет быть актёром, а моя сестра мечтает стать актрисой. - My brother wants to be an actor, and my sister dreams of becoming an actress.

хочет быть актёром – he wants to be an actor (to have that profession as his state).
мечтает стать актрисой – she dreams of becoming an actress (the moment of achieving that status).

Can we swap?

Мой брат хочет стать актёром – OK, very natural: he wants to become an actor.
Моя сестра мечтает быть актрисой – also grammatically OK, but it slightly emphasizes the state of being an actress, less on the moment of getting there.

Usually:

хотеть / планировать / собираться go very well with стать.
мечтать also very often goes with стать, because dreams are about some future change or achievement.

What is the difference between хочет and мечтает? They both involve wanting something, right?

Yes, but the nuance is different:

хотеть = to want, a normal, realistic desire.
- Мой брат хочет быть актёром. – He wants to be an actor (he may actually try to do it).
мечтать = to dream (of something), often more emotional, idealistic, maybe less realistic.
- Моя сестра мечтает стать актрисой. – She dreams of becoming an actress (it’s her big dream, not just a practical plan).

So the Russian sentence contrasts a realistic wish (хочет) with a more dreamy wish (мечтает).

Why does the sentence use а instead of и between the two parts?

Both а and и can be translated as and, but:

и usually just adds similar things (and = plus).
а usually shows contrast or difference between two subjects, actions, or states.

In this sentence:

Мой брат хочет быть актёром, а моя сестра мечтает стать актрисой.

The speaker is contrasting the brother and the sister:

Brother: wants to be an actor.
Sister: dreams of becoming an actress.

So а roughly feels like whereas / while / but in English.

Using и here is possible but weaker stylistically; а is more natural because it highlights the difference.

Why is it мой брат but моя сестра? Why do мой and моя change?

The possessive мой / моя / моё / мои (my) agrees with the gender and number of the noun:

мой – masculine singular
моя – feminine singular
моё – neuter singular
мои – plural (all genders)

So:

брат (brother) is masculine → мой брат
сестра (sister) is feminine → моя сестра

The word мой itself is not masculine inherently; it just takes masculine form because брат is masculine. Similarly, моя is feminine because сестра is feminine.

Why aren’t there words for he and she? In English we would usually say He wants… and she dreams…

Russian often omits subject pronouns when the subject is clear from context or from the verb ending.

Here, the subjects мой брат and моя сестра are explicitly mentioned, so repeating он (he) and она (she) is unnecessary and would sound heavy:

Natural: Мой брат хочет быть актёром, а моя сестра мечтает стать актрисой.
Overly repetitive: Мой брат он хочет…, а моя сестра она мечтает… (sounds clumsy).

The verb endings (-ет in хочет, мечтает) already show it is he/she (3rd person singular). Russian relies heavily on this, so pronouns are often dropped.

Could we leave out мой / моя and just say Брат хочет быть актёром, а сестра мечтает стать актрисой?

Yes, grammatically it’s fine, and people do say things like that.

However, the nuance changes slightly:

мой брат, моя сестра – clearly my brother, my sister.
брат, сестра without possessives can sometimes sound more general or depend on context (could be the brother, our sister, or just understood from the situation).

In everyday speech, Russians often drop мой / моя when it’s obvious you are talking about your own family:

Someone asks: У тебя есть брат и сестра? (Do you have a brother and a sister?)
You answer: Брат хочет быть актёром, а сестра мечтает стать актрисой.

In a stand‑alone sentence (like in a textbook), adding мой / моя makes the meaning explicit.

Russian does not have a/an. How do we know it is an actor / an actress and not the actor / the actress?

Russian has no articles, so context does all the work.

In this kind of sentence with professions after быть/стать, the default English translation uses a/an:

хочет быть актёром → wants to be an actor
мечтает стать актрисой → dreams of becoming an actress

If you really needed the actor / the actress, Russian would usually add context or another word (pointing, specifying, etc.). But when stating someone’s future profession in general, English also normally uses a/an, so it’s a straightforward choice in translation.

How flexible is the word order? Could we say Моя сестра мечтает стать актрисой, а мой брат хочет быть актёром or put verbs and objects in a different order?

Russian word order is fairly flexible, especially in simple sentences like this. All of these are grammatical, with only small differences in emphasis:

Мой брат хочет быть актёром, а моя сестра мечтает стать актрисой. (original)
Моя сестра мечтает стать актрисой, а мой брат хочет быть актёром. (sister mentioned first)

You can also slightly rearrange inside each clause, though the original order (Subject – Verb – Rest) is the most neutral:

Мой брат актёром хочет быть – possible, but sounds a bit poetic or emphatic.
Моя сестра стать актрисой мечтает – also possible but marked; normal speech keeps мечтает стать актрисой together.

So yes, you can switch the clauses around and still be correct; the main unchangeable elements are the forms themselves (хочет, быть, актёром, etc.).

Why is it стать and not становиться? What is the difference?

Both are related to becoming, but they differ in aspect:

стать – perfective, focuses on the result / single change (to become).
становиться – imperfective, focuses on the process / repeated or ongoing becoming (to be becoming / to get to be).

With мечтать, we normally talk about the result you want to reach, so стать is the natural choice:

мечтает стать актрисой – she dreams of becoming an actress (achieving that state).

Мечтать становиться актрисой is unidiomatic and sounds very strange; the verb становиться rarely follows мечтать this way.

Could we say мечтает быть актрисой instead of мечтает стать актрисой?

Yes, мечтает быть актрисой is grammatically correct, but the nuance is slightly different:

мечтает стать актрисой – she dreams of the moment of becoming an actress, achieving that goal.
мечтает быть актрисой – she dreams of being an actress, of living that life, enjoying that state.

In many contexts they overlap and both sound natural. In practice, мечтать + стать + профессия (instrumental) is very common when talking about children’s or young people’s dreams about their future job.

Why do we have different words актёр and актриса? Are profession words always gendered like that?

Актёр is masculine, актриса is feminine. Russian often has paired masculine/feminine forms for people’s roles:

учитель / учительница – (male) teacher / (female) teacher
поэт / поэтесса – (male) poet / (female) poet
актёр / актриса – actor / actress

However:

For many modern professions, one common form is used for both genders (often masculine grammatically):
- врач (doctor) – used for both men and women; if needed you say женщина‑врач.
- менеджер, инженер, дизайнер, etc., are usually the same for men and women.

In this sentence, because we talk specifically about brother vs sister, using актёр vs актриса fits the natural masculine/feminine contrast.

How do we pronounce актёром and актрисой, and why is there ё with dots?

Pronunciation:

актёром – [ак‑ТЁ‑ром], stress on ё; the ё is always stressed and sounds like yo in yoga.
актрисой – [ак‑ТРИ‑сой], stress on и.

About ё:

Ё ё is a separate letter in Russian, pronounced yo.
In many printed texts, ё is written as е (without the dots), and readers guess from context and experience.
Textbooks often keep the dots to help learners: актёр, актёром.

So in normal Russian books you might see актер, but you still pronounce it [актёр].