Learn Hardcore Russian: Моя подруга говорит, что нет глупых вопросов, есть только лень спрашивать. - My friend female says that there are no stupid questions, there is only laziness to ask.

In modern colloquial Russian, друг is sometimes used more generally (like “buddy”), but if you want to explicitly mark a female friend, подруга is the normal word.

Why is говорит in the present tense and not past, like сказала?

Говорит (3rd person singular present) here expresses something like:

“My friend says (often / generally) that…”

So it suggests a habitual statement or a general opinion that she repeats.

If you used сказала (“said”), it would refer to a specific past moment:

Моя подруга сказала, что… – My friend said that… (on one occasion)

In this sentence, the idea is more like a proverb or her “usual saying,” so говорит fits better.

Why is there a comma before что in говорит, что нет…?

In Russian, when a verb of speaking/thinking is followed by a “that”-clause, you separate them with a comma:

Она говорит, что... – She says that…
Я думаю, что... – I think that…

Here, что нет глупых вопросов, есть только лень спрашивать is an object clause (what she says), introduced by the conjunction что (“that”), so it must be preceded by a comma.

What is что here: “that” or “what”?

In this sentence, что is a conjunction meaning “that”, not a question word.

что нет глупых вопросов, есть только лень спрашивать = “that there are no stupid questions, there is only laziness to ask.”

If it were “what,” it would usually be part of a question or a relative clause, and the structure would be different (for example, что она сказала? – “what did she say?”).

Why is it нет глупых вопросов and not нет глупые вопросы?

After нет (there is no / there are no), the noun goes into the genitive case.

нет + Genitive is the standard pattern:
- нет книги (no book)
- нет денег (no money)
- нет вопросов (no questions)

Since вопросы (questions) is plural, its genitive plural is вопросов.

Adjectives must agree in case, number, and gender with the noun, so:

Nominative plural: глупые вопросы (stupid questions)
Genitive plural: глупых вопросов (of stupid questions → “(there are) no stupid questions”)

So нет глупых вопросов is grammatically required.

Why is there нет in the first part and есть in the second part?

Russian uses different words for “there is/are” in negative and positive existential sentences:

Positive: often есть (is/are, exists)
- Есть время. – There is time.
Negative: нет (there is no / there are no)
- Нет времени. – There is no time.

So the structure here is very typical:

нет глупых вопросов – there are no stupid questions
есть только лень спрашивать – (there) is only laziness to ask

The contrast нет …, есть только … (“there are no …, there is only …”) is stylistically nice and very natural in Russian.

Why is есть used in the second part but not in the first part (нет глупых вопросов)?

In the positive present tense, есть is often optional and can be omitted:

(Есть) проблема. – There is a problem.
(Есть) книга на столе. – There is a book on the table.

In the negative, you must use нет; you can’t simply drop it:

Нет проблемы. – There is no problem.
(You cannot say just Проблемы to mean this.)

In the sentence:

нет глупых вопросов → negative → must use нет, no place for есть.
есть только лень спрашивать → positive, and the speaker chooses to include есть for clarity and rhythm. They could theoretically say только лень спрашивать, but есть makes the contrast with нет clearer and more emphatic.

What exactly is лень grammatically, and how does it work in есть только лень спрашивать?

Лень is a feminine noun meaning “laziness”, but it is very often used in an impersonal construction like:

Мне лень вставать. – I’m too lazy to get up. / I don’t feel like getting up.

Grammar:

мне – dative (“to me”)
лень – subject (“it is laziness for me” → “I’m too lazy”)
вставать – infinitive of the action you’re too lazy to do.

In your sentence:

есть только лень спрашивать literally: “there is only laziness to ask”
→ more naturally: “people are just too lazy to ask”.

It’s a slightly more abstract use: not tied to мне/тебе/нам, but to people in general or to the situation.

Why is it спрашивать and not спросить?

Спрашивать and спросить are an aspect pair:

спрашивать – imperfective (to ask, process/habit, repeated)
спросить – perfective (to ask once, to complete the act of asking)

With лень, Russian normally uses the imperfective infinitive, because it describes doing the action in general, not a single completed event:

Мне лень читать. – I’m too lazy to read.
Мне лень готовить. – I’m too lazy to cook.
Мне лень спрашивать. – I’m too lazy to ask (in general).

So лень спрашивать is the natural combination.
лень спросить would sound odd; you almost never hear that.

Could we say ленивость instead of лень here?

You could grammatically say:

…есть только ленивость спрашивать,

but it would sound unnatural and almost never used.

Differences:

лень – everyday, colloquial, very common word; used in constructions like мне лень + infinitive.
ленивость – more abstract noun (“laziness” as a quality), used in more formal or descriptive speech:
- Его ленивость мешает ему. – His laziness hinders him.

In this idiomatic sentence, лень спрашивать is the normal, idiomatic way to say it. Native speakers strongly prefer лень, not ленивость, in this pattern.

Is лень спрашивать a complete phrase, or is something like мне implied?

On its own, the standard pattern is:

Мне лень спрашивать. – I’m too lazy to ask.

In your sentence, the speaker talks in a general, impersonal way, so they leave the dative pronoun implicit:

…есть только лень спрашивать.
→ “there is only laziness to ask (questions)”
→ “people are just too lazy to ask.”

You can think of it as a kind of “general human” мне/нам/людям (“we/people”) that is understood from context. This kind of impersonal phrasing is common in Russian.

Is this a common fixed saying in Russian, or just something this friend says?

The exact wording here sounds like a personal phrasing, but it is clearly based on a well-known idea.

Common variants you will see/hear:

Нет глупых вопросов — есть глупые ответы.
“There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers.”
Нет глупых вопросов, есть только глупые ответы.

Your sentence:

Нет глупых вопросов, есть только лень спрашивать.

So it reuses the recognizable pattern “нет X, есть только Y”, but replaces “stupid answers” with “laziness to ask.” It sounds natural and witty, and Russians will easily understand it, but it is not a strict proverb with only one fixed form.