Learn Hardcore Russian: Мой брат рассказывает смешную историю.

Russian uses the nominative case for the subject of the sentence – the person or thing performing the action. Here, мой брат is the one doing the action of telling, so it must be nominative.

What case is смешную историю, and why do both words change their endings?

Смешную историю is in the accusative case, because it is the direct object of the verb – the thing being told.

смешную – accusative feminine singular of the adjective смешной (funny)
историю – accusative feminine singular of the noun история (story)

In Russian, adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe in:

gender (feminine here),
number (singular),
case (accusative).

So both the adjective and the noun change their endings to show they are feminine, singular, and accusative.

Why is it рассказывает and not говорит or скажет?

These verbs are related but not identical:

рассказывать – to tell, to narrate, to relate a story or account (usually more detailed, structured)
- рассказывает – he/she is telling / tells
говорить – to speak, to talk, to say (more general)
- говорит – he/she speaks / is talking / says
сказать – to say (perfective, one-time completed act)
- скажет – he/she will say

In Мой брат рассказывает смешную историю, the focus is on narrating a story, not just speaking in general or producing one short statement. That’s exactly the meaning of рассказывать, so рассказывает is the natural choice.

Is рассказывает present tense, and can it mean both “is telling” and “tells”?

Yes, рассказывает is present tense (3rd person singular).

In Russian, the present tense of an imperfective verb (like рассказывает) usually covers both:

English present simple:
- Мой брат рассказывает смешные истории. – My brother tells funny stories.
English present continuous:
- Мой брат рассказывает смешную историю. – My brother is telling a funny story.

Context tells you whether it should be translated as “is telling” or “tells” in English.

What aspect is рассказывает, and what would the perfective form be?

Рассказывает is imperfective aspect.

Infinitive (imperfective): рассказывать – to be telling, to tell (process, repeated, ongoing)
3rd person singular present: рассказывает

The corresponding perfective verb is рассказать:

Infinitive (perfective): рассказать – to tell (once, as a completed act)
3rd person singular future: он расскажет – he will tell (and finish)

You would use рассказывает for an ongoing or habitual action in the present, and расскажет for a single completed action in the future. Russian does not normally use perfective verbs in the present tense to talk about the present.

Why does мой end with -й, but смешную ends with -ую?

Because they are agreeing with different nouns in different cases:

мой брат:
- брат – masculine nominative singular
- мой – masculine nominative singular form of мой (my)
смешную историю:
- история – feminine noun
- In the accusative singular, a feminine adjective ending in -ой / -ый in the nominative becomes -ую:
  - nominative: смешная история – a funny story
  - accusative: смешную историю – (telling) a funny story

So:

мой matches a masculine nominative noun (брат),
смешную matches a feminine accusative noun (историю).

Why is there no word for “a” in смешную историю?

Russian has no articles (no direct equivalents of English a/an/the).

The idea of “a funny story” vs. “the funny story” is shown by context, not by a separate word.

So смешную историю can be translated as:

a funny story,
the funny story,

depending on the situation. The Russian phrase itself just means funny story in the accusative case; the choice of a or the is made when translating into English.

Can I change the word order? For example, can I say Мой брат смешную историю рассказывает?

Yes, Russian word order is relatively flexible. These are all possible:

Мой брат рассказывает смешную историю.
– neutral, typical order: subject – verb – object.
Мой брат смешную историю рассказывает.
– puts extra emphasis on рассказывает (the action); sounds more emotional or expressive.
Смешную историю рассказывает мой брат.
– emphasizes смешную историю or contrasts who is telling it: It’s my brother who is telling a funny story.

Meaning (who does what to what) is mostly kept by cases, not word order. Word order changes emphasis and style, not the basic grammar.

How would I say “My brother will tell a funny story”?

You need the perfective future with рассказать:

Мой брат расскажет смешную историю.
– My brother will tell a funny story (and finish telling it).

The verb form расскажет (3rd person singular of рассказать) shows:

perfective aspect (completed action),
future time.

How do I say “My brother often tells funny stories”?

You keep the same verb рассказывает, but make the object plural and add an adverb of frequency:

Мой брат часто рассказывает смешные истории.
- часто – often
- смешные истории – funny stories (plural nominative/accusative)

This clearly means a habitual action.

What are the stress patterns and basic pronunciation of Мой брат рассказывает смешную историю?

Approximate stress (stressed syllables in CAPS):

Мой – MOY (like English boy with m)
брат – BRAT (short a, like braht)
рассказывает – ra-SSKA-vy-yet
- main stress on -ССКА-: ra-SSKA-vi-yet
смешную – smesh-NU-yu
- stress on -НУ-
историю – i-STO-ri-yu
- stress on -СТО-

Linked together at normal speed:
Мой брат рассказывает смешную историю.
[Approx.: Moy brat raSSKA-vyet smeshNU-yu iSTO-ri-yu]

What are the other forms of мой I should know?

Мой is the masculine nominative singular form of “my”. Other main forms in the nominative:

мой – masculine (e.g. мой брат – my brother)
моя – feminine (e.g. моя сестра – my sister)
моё – neuter (e.g. моё письмо – my letter)
мои – plural for all genders (e.g. мои друзья – my friends)

In other cases (genitive, dative, etc.), these also change endings, but in this sentence you only need мой for брат in the nominative.