Learn Hardcore Russian: Моя подруга работает редактором в журнале и внимательно проверяет каждую статью. - My female friend works as an editor at a magazine and carefully checks each article.

подруга is a feminine singular noun (nominative case).
The word for my has four main forms:
- мой – masculine singular (e.g. мой друг – my (male) friend)
- моя – feminine singular (e.g. моя подруга – my (female) friend)
- моё – neuter singular (e.g. моё письмо – my letter)
- мои – plural (e.g. мои друзья – my friends)

Since подруга is feminine, you must use моя, not мой.

What’s the difference between подруга and друг? Does подруга mean “girlfriend”?

друг = (usually) male friend, but can also mean friend in general in some contexts.
подруга = female friend.

About “girlfriend”:

моя подруга usually means my (female) friend, not necessarily romantic.
моя девушка is the usual way to say my girlfriend (romantic partner).
Context and intonation can sometimes make подруга sound romantic, but by default it’s just “female friend.”

So in this sentence, моя подруга is simply “my (female) friend.”

Why is it работает редактором and not работает редактор?

With professions in Russian, after the verb работать (to work), you normally use the instrumental case, not the nominative.

The pattern is:

работать кем? – to work as what? / as whom? → answer in instrumental.

Examples:

Он работает врачом. – He works as a doctor.
Она работает инженером. – She works as an engineer.
Моя подруга работает редактором. – My friend works as an editor.

So редактором is the instrumental singular form of редактор, required by работать кем?

How is the ending -ом in редактором formed? What would it be for other genders?

Редактор is a masculine noun. The instrumental singular ending for most hard-stem masculine nouns is -ом.

Nominative: редактор (editor)
Instrumental: редактором (as an editor)

Other common patterns:

Masculine nouns:
- студент → студентом (student)
- учитель → учителем (teacher; soft stem, so -ем instead of -ом)
Feminine nouns:
- медсестра → медсестрой (nurse)
- подруга → подругой (female friend)

So if the subject were feminine, you’d still put the profession in instrumental, but with the appropriate feminine form, e.g.:

Она работает медсестрой. – She works as a nurse.

Does работает mean “works” or “is working”?

It can mean both. Russian does not have a separate “-ing” form like English.

работает is 3rd person singular, present tense, imperfective: “(she) works / (she) is working”.

Context decides whether you understand it as:

a general/habitual action:
- Моя подруга работает редактором… – My friend works as an editor (that’s her job).
a current/ongoing action (in the right context):
- Она сейчас работает. – She is working right now.

In this sentence, it’s clearly about her profession, so we understand it as “works (as an editor).”

Why do we say в журнале and not в журнал here?

The preposition в can take prepositional or accusative case, depending on meaning:

Где? (where?) – location → prepositional case
- в журнале – in a magazine (place of work)
Куда? (to where?) – direction, movement into → accusative case
- в журнал – into the magazine (e.g., send an article to the magazine)

In your sentence:

She works in a magazine → location → где? → в журнале (prepositional case: журнал → журнале).

What exactly does журнал mean? Is it like “journal” in English?

Журнал usually means magazine:

Она работает в модном журнале. – She works at a fashion magazine.

But it can also mean:

a professional/academic journal (like many English “journals”)
a logbook / register (e.g. классный журнал – class register in schools)

Important false friends:

English journal as “diary” is not журнал; it is дневник.

In this sentence, в журнале is naturally understood as “in a (printed or online) magazine.”

How is внимательно related to внимательный?

внимательный is an adjective: “attentive”.
- внимательный человек – an attentive person.
внимательно is the adverb formed from that adjective: “attentively, carefully”.

A common pattern in Russian:

adjective (masc form) ends in -ый / -ий / -ой → adverb ends in -о
- быстрый → быстро (fast → quickly)
- тихий → тихо (quiet → quietly)
- внимательный → внимательно (attentive → attentively/carefully)

Adverbs like внимательно:

do not change for gender, number, or case
usually describe how an action is done:

внимательно проверяет – (she) checks carefully / attentively.

Why is внимательно placed before проверяет? Could it go somewhere else?

In Russian, adverbs can move around a bit, but some positions are more natural.

The most neutral options here are:

Моя подруга внимательно проверяет каждую статью.
Моя подруга проверяет внимательно каждую статью.

Both are possible, but:

внимательно проверяет (adverb before the verb) sounds very natural and is probably the most common pattern.
проверяет внимательно is also okay and may emphasize the action a bit more.

Putting внимательно far from проверяет (e.g. at the very end) is less natural here:

Моя подруга проверяет каждую статью внимательно. – still acceptable, with a slight focus on внимательно (“she checks every article, and she does it carefully”).

In your sentence, внимательно проверяет is a standard, neutral word order.

What is happening with каждую статью? Why not каждая статья?

Каждую статью is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb проверяет (checks).

Каждый (each/every) – adjective/pronoun that must agree with the noun:

Feminine singular forms:

Nominative: каждая статья – every article (as subject)
Accusative: каждую статью – every article (as object)

Статья (article) – feminine noun:

Nominative: статья – (this) article
Accusative: статью – (checks) the article

So in:

…внимательно проверяет каждую статью.

проверяет что? – каждую статью → accusative.
Hence каждую (not каждая) and статью (not статья).

Can we change the word order in this sentence?

Yes, Russian word order is flexible, though you shouldn’t move things randomly.

Original:
> Моя подруга работает редактором в журнале и внимательно проверяет каждую статью.

Some natural variations:

> Моя подруга работает редактором в журнале и проверяет каждую статью внимательно.

– Slightly more emphasis on how she checks (внимательно).

> Моя подруга внимательно проверяет каждую статью и работает редактором в журнале.

– Now you start with what she does with the articles, then add that she works as an editor.

You can move в журнале a bit: > Моя подруга работает в журнале редактором и внимательно проверяет каждую статью.

– Still understandable; style-wise, the original is a bit smoother.

You generally cannot separate tightly connected pairs too much:

работает редактором should stay together
каждую статью should stay together

But within those limits, you can rearrange to change emphasis slightly without changing the basic meaning.