Learn Hardcore Russian: Мой брат всегда пристёгивает ремень перед поездкой. - My brother always fastens his seat belt before the trip.

Мой брат всегда пристёгивает свой ремень. – also correct, emphasizes that it’s his own belt.
Мой брат всегда пристёгивает его ремень. – would normally mean he fastens someone else’s belt (someone previously mentioned as он).

Because the owner is clearly the subject (мой брат), Russian normally leaves the possessive unspoken here.

Why is всегда placed between Мой брат and пристёгивает? Can it go in other places?

Neutral word order in Russian usually puts adverbs of frequency (like всегда) before the verb:

Мой брат всегда пристёгивает ремень. – standard, neutral.

Other options:

Мой брат пристёгивает ремень всегда. – sounds more emphatic: he *always does it (as opposed to others / in contrast to not doing it).*
Всегда мой брат пристёгивает ремень. – stylistically marked, with strong emphasis on always.

For a typical everyday sentence, Subject – всегда – Verb – Object is the most natural pattern.

What is the basic form (infinitive) of пристёгивает, and how is it conjugated?

The infinitive is пристёгивать (to fasten, to buckle).

It’s a regular 1st‑conjugation verb. Present tense:

я пристёгиваю
ты пристёгиваешь
он/она/оно пристёгивает
мы пристёгиваем
вы пристёгиваете
они пристёгивают

In the sentence, пристёгивает is 3rd person singular (he/she/it fastens).

How do пристёгивать, пристегнуть, пристёгиваться, and пристегнуться differ?

There are two main distinctions: aspect and reflexive vs non‑reflexive.

Aspect
- пристёгивать – imperfective: to fasten, to be fastening (repeated / process)
- пристегнуть – perfective: to fasten once, to have fastened
In the sentence (всегда пристёгивает), we talk about a habitual action, so the imperfective is correct.
Reflexive forms (ending in -ся / -сь):
- пристёгиваться – to fasten oneself in (to buckle up) (imperfective)
- пристегнуться – to fasten oneself in (once) (perfective)
Examples:
- Он пристёгивает ремень. – He fastens the belt. (non‑reflexive, focuses on the object)
- Он пристёгивается. – He buckles up. (reflexive, focuses on him performing the action on himself)

Both ways are natural in everyday speech; Russians often say either пристёгивать ремень or пристёгиваться with the same practical meaning.

Why is it just ремень and not ремень безопасности? Doesn’t ремень also mean a “belt” for trousers?

Yes, ремень is a general word for belt (clothing belt, strap), and ремень безопасности is specifically seat belt.

However, in context of пристёгивать and a trip / driving, saying simply ремень is normally understood as ремень безопасности (seat belt). It’s like saying “buckle your belt” when everyone knows you mean the seat belt.

You can use the full phrase if you want to be explicit:

Мой брат всегда пристёгивает ремень безопасности перед поездкой. – completely clear: seat belt.

Why doesn’t ремень change form here? Isn’t it in the accusative case as the object?

It is in the accusative case, but for masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative form is identical to the nominative.

Nominative: ремень (belt)
Accusative (inanimate): ремень

Compare with an animate masculine noun:

Nominative: брат (brother)
Accusative: брата (I see my brother – я вижу брата)

So grammatically ремень is accusative here, it just looks the same as the nominative.

Why is it перед поездкой with -ой at the end? Which case is that?

Перед requires the instrumental case.

The noun is поездка (trip, journey). Its instrumental singular is поездкой:

Nominative: поездка
Instrumental: поездкой

So:

перед поездкой – literally “in front of / before (in time) the trip”

This is a standard rule:

перед домом – in front of the house
перед уроком – before the lesson
перед обедом – before lunch

What’s the difference between перед поездкой and до поездки?

Both can translate as “before the trip”, but the nuance differs:

перед поездкой – usually suggests closely before the trip, in the time immediately preceding it.
до поездки – means at any time before the trip; it doesn’t feel as close to the starting moment.

In your sentence, перед поездкой fits well because fastening the seat belt happens right before setting off, not days or hours earlier.

What exactly does поездка mean? How is it different from поезд or путешествие?

поездка – a (usually not very long) trip, ride, outing. Strongly linked to the fact of going somewhere:
- поездка на машине – a car trip
- поездка на автобусе – a bus ride
поезд – train (the vehicle, not the trip itself).
- Я жду поезд. – I’m waiting for the train.
путешествие – journey, travel, often longer or more “serious”/adventurous.
- путешествие по Европе – a trip/travel around Europe.

In перед поездкой, поездка is the most natural choice: it’s the event of going somewhere (by car, bus, etc.).

Could I replace перед поездкой with a clause like перед тем как ехать or прежде чем ехать?

Yes, you can, and they’re natural:

Мой брат всегда пристёгивает ремень перед тем, как ехать.
Мой брат всегда пристёгивает ремень, прежде чем ехать.

These both mean roughly “before (he) goes / before driving”.
The original перед поездкой is a bit shorter and more neutral; the clause versions sound slightly more explicit or “spoken” in style.

How is пристёгивает pronounced, and what about the letter ё?

пристёгивает is pronounced: [при‑СТЁ‑гива‑ет], with the stress on -стё-.

Key points:

ё is always pronounced “yo” (like “your” without r): [ё].
The stress falls on пристЁгивает, so the ё is the strong vowel.

In normal Russian writing, ё is often replaced with е (especially in print), so you might see пристегивает. But the pronunciation and stress stay the same: it’s still пристёгивает.