Моя сестра любит фотографировать природу в парке.

My sister likes to photograph nature in the park.

Breakdown of Моя сестра любит фотографировать природу в парке.

• мой: my
• любить: to love
• парк: the park
• в: in
• сестра: the sister
• природа: the nature
• фотографировать: to photograph

Questions & Answers about Моя сестра любит фотографировать природу в парке.

Why is it моя сестра and not мой сестра?

In Russian, possessive adjectives (мой, моя, моё, мои) agree in gender and number with the noun they modify.

• сестра is a feminine noun (ends in -а and means sister).
• So you must use the feminine form моя, not the masculine мой.

Quick pattern with мой (my):

• Masculine: мой брат (my brother)
• Feminine: моя сестра (my sister)
• Neuter: моё письмо (my letter)
• Plural: мои родители (my parents)

Why is сестра in this form and not сестру?

Сестра is in the nominative case because it’s the subject of the sentence – the person who does the action (likes photographing).

Basic rule:

• Subject → nominative case: сестра
• Direct object (what is affected by the action) → usually accusative: природу

If you changed the sentence so that sister became the object, then you’d use сестру, for example:
Я люблю свою сестру. – I love my sister.

Why do we use любит and not the infinitive любить?

Любить is the infinitive (dictionary form). In a sentence, you must conjugate the verb to match the subject.

Conjugation of любить (to love / to like) in present tense:

• Я люблю
• Ты любишь
• Он / она / оно любит
• Мы любим
• Вы любите
• Они любят

The subject is моя сестра = она (third person singular feminine), so we use любит.

Why is it любит фотографировать and not something like любит фотографию to mean “likes taking photos”?

In Russian, when you say you like doing an activity, you typically use:

любить + infinitive

So:

• Моя сестра любит фотографировать. – My sister likes to photograph / taking photos.

Using a noun like фотографию after любить would mean “likes the photograph (as an object),” not the activity:

• Она любит фотографию. – She likes photography (as a field/art), or “she likes the photograph,” depending on context.

To stress the hobby/activity, любить + infinitive is the normal pattern.

What exactly does фотографировать mean? Is it “to take photos” or “to photograph”?

Фотографировать is an imperfective verb that means to photograph / to take pictures / to take photos in general, as an ongoing or repeated action.

Examples:

• Я люблю фотографировать. – I like taking photos (as a hobby).
• Он часто фотографирует людей. – He often photographs people.

It doesn’t specify how many photos, just the action/habit of taking pictures.

Why is природу in this form and not природа?

Природу is the accusative case of природа (nature), used here because природа is the direct object of the verb фотографировать.

Pattern:

• Nominative (subject): природа – nature (as a topic)
• Accusative (direct object): фотографировать природу – to photograph nature

The question “photograph what?” is answered by природу, so we use the accusative.

Why is it в парке and not в парк?

Russian distinguishes between:

• в + prepositional case (answering “where?”) → location, being inside a place
• в + accusative case (answering “where to?”) → movement into a place

Here, the sentence describes where she photographs nature (static location), not movement to the park. So we use the prepositional case:

• в парке – in the park (where?)
• в парк – to the park (where to?)

So:
Моя сестра любит фотографировать природу в парке. – She likes photographing nature in the park (while she is there).

Can the word order change? For example, can I say В парке моя сестра любит фотографировать природу?

Yes, Russian has relatively flexible word order. Your version is grammatically correct:

• Моя сестра любит фотографировать природу в парке.
  Neutral, the most typical order.

• В парке моя сестра любит фотографировать природу.
  This puts extra emphasis on в парке (“In the park, my sister likes to photograph nature”), maybe contrasting with other places.

The core grammatical roles are shown mostly by endings (cases), not by position, so you can move parts around, but the neutral and most natural version for a beginner is the original one.

Why is it в парке, not something like на парке?

With парк, Russian uses в to mean “in” or “inside” the park:

• в парке – in the park

The preposition на is used with some other outdoor or open spaces, like:

• на улице – on the street / outside
• на природе – in nature / out in nature
• на стадионе – at the stadium

But for парк specifically, the natural choice is в парке.

Could the sentence mean that she likes photographing the park itself, not just nature in general?

Grammatically, природу в парке groups together as “nature in the park”:

• фотографировать природу в парке – to photograph nature in the park.

If you wanted to emphasize the park as the object (the park itself), you’d normally say:

• фотографировать парк – to photograph the park

The original sentence suggests she photographs natural scenes (trees, flowers, landscapes, etc.) specifically in a park setting, not just monuments or playground equipment.

Why not use нравиться instead of любить, like Моей сестре нравится фотографировать природу в парке?

You can say that, and it’s correct. The difference is in structure and nuance:

1. Любить + noun / infinitive

   • Моя сестра любит фотографировать природу в парке.
     Literally: My sister loves/likes to photograph nature in the park.
     More direct, sounds a bit stronger, often used for stable preferences or hobbies.

2. Нравиться + dative + noun/infinitive

   • Моей сестре нравится фотографировать природу в парке.
     Literally: To my sister, photographing nature in the park is pleasing.
     Slightly more neutral/soft, and grammatically my sister becomes an indirect object (моей сестре, dative).

Both are natural. The любить version is very common when talking about hobbies.

Could I drop моя and just say Сестра любит фотографировать природу в парке?

Yes, you can, but the meaning changes slightly:

• Моя сестра любит… – clearly my sister.
• Сестра любит… – the sister / a sister; you’d normally say this only if the sister has already been mentioned in the conversation, or in a context like talking about family members in general.

In everyday speech, if you’re talking about your own sister, you’d usually include моя, especially if it hasn’t been mentioned yet.

How would I say “My sisters like photographing nature in the park”?

You need plural for sister and plural verb:

• Мои сёстры любят фотографировать природу в парке.

Changes:

• моя сестра (my sister) → мои сёстры (my sisters)
• любит (she likes) → любят (they like)

The rest of the sentence stays the same.

Is the sentence talking about a habit (something she regularly does) or about one specific time?

Because любит and фотографировать are imperfective and in the present tense, this describes a general preference / habit, not a single event.

So it means:

• She likes (in general) to photograph nature in the park.
  It does not mean “Right now she is photographing nature in the park.” For that, Russian would usually specify time or use a different context, e.g.:
• Сейчас моя сестра фотографирует природу в парке. – Right now my sister is photographing nature in the park.

How do you pronounce each word, especially the stress?

Approximate pronunciation (stressed syllable in bold):

• Моя – ma-YA
• сестра – sis-TRA
• любит – LYU-bit (LYU as in “lyoo”)
• фотографировать – fa-tah-gra-FEE-ra-vit (more precisely: fuh-tuh-gra-FEE-rah-veet)
• природу – pree-RO-doo
• в парке – v PAR-kye

Stress is important in Russian, so especially remember:

• сестра
• любит (stress on лю, not on бит)
• фотографировать
• природу
• парке