Learn Hardcore Russian: Маленькая дочь целует папу в щёку и смеётся. - The little daughter kisses her dad on the cheek and laughs.

дочь is in the nominative (dictionary form is also дочь), so it’s the subject: the daughter is doing the actions.
папу is the accusative form of папа → he is the person being kissed (direct object of целует).
щёку is the accusative form of щёка → it’s the part of the body being kissed, after the preposition в.

So grammatically:
Маленькая дочь (nom.) целует кого? папу (acc.) в что? щёку (acc.) и смеётся.

Why is it папу and not папа?

Папа is a masculine noun that declines like a typical -а / -я noun (like many feminine nouns). Its forms include:

Nominative (subject): папа – Dad is reading.
Accusative (direct object): папу – She kisses Dad.

The verb целует “kisses” takes a direct object in the accusative, so:

кого? (whom?) → папу

That’s why you see папу, not папа, in this sentence.

Why is it в щёку and not на щёку or “на щеке”?

With verbs like целовать (to kiss), Russian normally uses the pattern:

целовать / поцеловать кого-то в + accusative (part of the body)

So naturally:

целовать в щёку – to kiss on the cheek
целовать в лоб – to kiss on the forehead
целовать в руку – to kiss on the hand

Even though the English preposition is usually on, Russian uses в + accusative in this idiom.
На щёке (on the cheek, on the surface of the cheek) would describe location, not this specific idiomatic construction with “to kiss.”

Why is it щёку and not щёка?

Щёка is the dictionary (nominative) form. With в meaning “into / onto” in a directional sense, Russian uses the accusative case:

(куда?) в дом – into the house
(куда?) в воду – into the water
(куда?) в щёку – (literally) into the cheek → idiomatically “on the cheek”

So щёку is the accusative singular of щёка, required by the preposition в in this expression.

Why does the adjective end in -ая: маленькая дочь?

Adjectives in Russian agree with the noun in:

gender
number
case

Дочь is:

feminine
singular
nominative (subject)

The standard ending for a feminine, singular, nominative adjective is -ая:

маленькая дочь – little daughter
русская книга – Russian book
новая машина – new car

So маленькая matches дочь in gender, number, and case.

Why is there no word for “the” or “a” in this sentence?

Russian does not have articles (no direct equivalents of a/an and the).

Маленькая дочь can mean a little daughter or the little daughter depending on context.
Native speakers understand whether it’s “a” or “the” from the broader situation, not from a special word.

So the sentence is complete without any article; English has to add either a or the when translating.

Why is there no word for “her” before “father” or “cheek”? Why not “her dad” / “her cheek”?

In Russian, it is very common to omit possessive pronouns (мой, твой, её, его, etc.) with:

close family members
body parts

when it’s obvious whose they are from the context.

So instead of saying:

Она целует *своего папу в свою щёку* (very heavy, often unnatural here)

Russian just says:

Она целует папу в щёку и смеётся.

English usually adds “her” to sound natural: She kisses *her dad on the cheek and laughs.*, but Russian doesn’t need those possessives here.

What is the function of the -ся in смеётся? Why isn’t it just смеет?

The verb is смеяться – to laugh. It is inherently reflexive and always has the -ся / -сь ending in its conjugated forms:

я смеюсь
ты смеёшься
он/она смеётся
мы смеёмся
вы смеётесь
они смеются

So смеётся is simply 3rd person singular present of смеяться.
The root сме- is related to laughter (compare смешной – funny), and -ться marks the infinitive of a reflexive verb. Смеет would be from сметь (to dare), which is a completely different verb.

Why is it целует and not поцелует?

Russian verb aspect is important:

целовать – imperfective (to be kissing / to kiss in general)
поцеловать – perfective (to kiss once, to complete the action)

In simple narrative descriptions in the present tense, Russian typically uses the imperfective:

Она целует папу и смеётся. – She kisses Dad and laughs. (describing what’s going on now, or a general habitual action)

The perfective поцелует in the present form usually refers to a future one-time action:

Она поцелует папу и уйдёт. – She will kiss Dad and leave.

In the given sentence, we’re just describing what is happening (or habitually happens), so целует is the natural choice.

Can the word order be changed, like Дочь маленькая целует папу в щёку и смеётся?

Russian word order is more flexible than English, but Маленькая дочь целует папу в щёку и смеётся is the most neutral order:

[Subject + adjective] + [verb] + [object] + [adverbial phrase] + [second verb]

You can rearrange words for emphasis, but not all orders sound equally natural. For example:

Дочь целует папу в щёку и смеётся. (just drops маленькая, fine)
Дочь маленькая целует папу… – sounds marked or awkward; it can be interpreted as the daughter is small (as a fact), and she kisses Dad… It changes the focus.

As a learner, it’s safest to keep adjective + noun (subject) near the beginning and not split them without a reason.

How do I pronounce щёку and смеётся, especially the letters щ and ё?

Щёку: [щё́-ку]

щ is a long soft “sh” sound, somewhat like sh in she, but longer and softer.
ё is always stressed and pronounced like yo in york.
Stress falls on ё: ЩЁ-ку.

Смеётся: [сме-йо́-ца]

сме- is like “smye-” (soft м
- е).
Again, ё = stressed yo.
The final тся in pronunciation is usually ца

So you get approximately:

щёку – SHCHYO-ku
смеётся – smye-YO-tsa

If папа ends in -а, why is it masculine?

Some very common male family terms in Russian end in -а / -я but are grammatically masculine, for example:

папа – dad (masc.)
дедушка – grandpa (masc.; looks like a feminine form)
дядя – uncle (masc.)

They decline like feminine -а/-я nouns, but:

they take masculine adjectives and pronouns:
- мой папа (my dad), хороший папа (a good dad)
they’re treated as masculine in agreement and meaning.

So папу is the masculine accusative form of папа.

Why is there no comma before и смеётся?

In Russian, when you have one subject performing two actions joined by и (and), you usually do not put a comma:

Дочь целует папу и смеётся. – One subject, two verbs.
Он смотрит фильм и ест пиццу. – He is watching a movie and eating pizza.

You would use a comma if the structure were more complex (e.g. different subjects, or if you’re joining larger clauses), but here it’s a simple compound predicate with the same subject, so no comma is needed.

What is the difference between дочь and дочка?

Both refer to a daughter, but:

дочь – more neutral / formal; typical in written language, official contexts, or when just stating the fact.
дочка – diminutive, more affectionate / informal (like “daughter” vs. “little daughter / daughter dear” / “sweetie”).

You could also say:

Маленькая дочка целует папу в щёку и смеётся.

This would sound even more tender and “family-like” than дочь.