Learn Hardcore Russian: Бабушка целует внука перед сном и желает спокойной ночи. - Grandmother kisses her grandson before sleep and wishes him good night.

In this sentence, внука is the direct object of the verb целует (kisses). In Russian, masculine singular nouns usually change to the accusative case when they are direct objects:

внук (nominative, subject) → внука (accusative, direct object)

So:

Бабушка целует внук – incorrect
Бабушка целует внука – correct (“Grandma kisses (her) grandson”)

Why is there no word for “her” in “kisses (her) grandson”? Why not своего внука?

Russian often omits possessive pronouns (мой, твой, свой, etc.) when the ownership is obvious from context, especially with:

family members
body parts

Here, it’s clear that the grandson is her grandson, so внука is enough. You can say своего внука, but it sounds more emphatic or contrastive, like:

Бабушка целует своего внука, а не чужого.
“Grandma kisses her own grandson, not someone else’s.”

In a neutral sentence, Бабушка целует внука is the natural choice.

Why is it перед сном, not перед сон?

The preposition перед (“before / in front of”) requires the instrumental case.

сон (nominative, “sleep”)
сном (instrumental, “(before) sleep”)

So we must say:

перед сном – correct (“before sleep / before going to bed”)
перед сон – incorrect

The instrumental form сном is required because of the preposition перед.

Why is it спокойной ночи and not спокойная ночь?

The base phrase is спокойная ночь (“a peaceful night”):

спокойная – nominative feminine singular adjective
ночь – nominative feminine singular noun

But in this sentence we have спокойной ночи, which is genitive feminine singular.

The verb желать (“to wish”) in Russian normally takes:

кому? (dative – to whom)
чего? (genitive – what you wish)

So the pattern is: желать кому-чего.

That’s why:

спокойная ночь (nominative) → спокойной ночи (genitive) after желать

Literally, желать спокойной ночи is like “to wish (someone) of a peaceful night,” which corresponds to English “to wish (someone) a good night.”

Why don’t we see the person we are wishing to, like “желает внуку спокойной ночи”?

You can say:

Бабушка желает внуку спокойной ночи.

This is a fully explicit sentence following the pattern желать кому-чего:

кому? – внуку (dative case, “to the grandson”)
чего? – спокойной ночи (genitive case, “a good night”)

However, in everyday speech, if it’s obvious to whom you are wishing something, Russian speakers often omit the кому part and just say:

желает спокойной ночи

The listener understands that the wish is directed to the person already mentioned (the grandson).

Is спокойной ночи just a grammar form here, or is it also a fixed expression like “Good night”?

It’s both:

Grammatically, it’s the genitive singular of спокойная ночь used after желать.
Culturally, Спокойной ночи! is also a very common set phrase, used exactly like English “Good night!”

So:

In this sentence: желает спокойной ночи = “wishes (him) a good night.”
As a standalone phrase: Спокойной ночи! = “Good night!”

Why are целует and желает both in the present tense? In English we might say “Grandma kisses … and wishes …” but also “Grandma kissed … and wished …”.

Russian present tense (несовершенный вид, imperfective aspect) is used here to describe a typical, repeated action:

Бабушка целует внука перед сном и желает спокойной ночи.
= “Grandma (usually / always) kisses her grandson before bed and wishes him good night.”

This is similar to the English Present Simple for routines and habits:

“Grandma kisses…”
“Grandma wishes…”

If you wanted to describe one specific occasion in the past, you would change the verbs to past tense:

Бабушка поцеловала внука перед сном и пожелала спокойной ночи.
“Grandma kissed her grandson before bed and wished him good night.”

Could we use поцелует instead of целует? What’s the difference?

Yes, but the meaning changes.

целует – present tense, imperfective aspect (целовать), focuses on the process or repeated action
поцелует – future tense, perfective aspect (поцеловать), focuses on a single completed action

In the original sentence, we’re talking about a habit:

Бабушка целует внука перед сном…
“Grandma kisses her grandson before bed (as she usually does).”

If you say:

Бабушка поцелует внука перед сном…

you mean something like:

“Grandma will kiss her grandson before bed (on that occasion / as a plan).”

So for general routines, целует is the natural choice.

Why not use целуется? I thought “-ся” often means something is happening to oneself.

The verb целоваться (with -ся) is reflexive/reciprocal and usually means:

“to kiss each other” / “to be kissing”

For example:

Они целуются. – “They are kissing (each other).”

If you said:

Бабушка целуется с внуком,

it would mean “Grandma and her grandson are kissing each other,” which sounds odd or wrong in most contexts.

Here we want a simple one-way action (Grandma kisses the grandson), so we use целует (non-reflexive).

Can the word order be changed, for example Внука бабушка целует перед сном…?

Yes, Russian word order is more flexible than English, but it changes emphasis.

Neutral, most natural order:

Бабушка целует внука перед сном и желает спокойной ночи.

If you say:

Внука бабушка целует перед сном…,

you put strong emphasis on внука (“the grandson”):

“It’s the grandson that Grandma kisses before bed…”
(maybe as opposed to some other child)

The basic roles (who is subject and who is object) do not change because Russian shows them mainly with cases (бабушка – nominative, внука – accusative), not with fixed word order. But stylistically, the neutral order is the version in the original sentence.

Is ночь feminine? Is that why we have спокойной and ночи?

Yes, ночь is a feminine noun in Russian.

That’s why:

Nominative: спокойная ночь (fem. adjective + fem. noun)
Genitive: спокойной ночи (both in feminine genitive singular)

The adjective спокойной agrees with ночи in:

gender (feminine)
number (singular)
case (genitive)

Is “перед сном” literally “before sleep”? Is it used like “before bed” in English?

Yes.

перед сном literally = “before sleep”
Idiomatically, it’s used like “before bed” / “at bedtime”

Common examples:

Я читаю перед сном. – “I read before bed.”
Не ешь много перед сном. – “Don’t eat a lot before bed.”

So in the sentence, перед сном is best understood as “before bed / at bedtime,” not just as a technical phrase about the act of sleeping.