Learn Hardcore Russian: Мама порезала хлеб на столе.

Мама порезала хлеб на столе. – A completed action: she finished cutting the bread.
Мама резала хлеб на столе. – Focus on the process, like Mom was cutting bread on the table (we don’t know if she finished).

Russian aspect (perfective vs. imperfective) is about how we view the action, not about time; both here are past tense.

Why порезать and not нарезать, разрезать, or отрезать?

All of these verbs involve cutting but have different nuances:

порезать хлеб – to cut some bread; neutral, often about making several cuts or just cutting it.
нарезать хлеб – to slice bread into many pieces (often evenly, like for serving).
отрезать хлеб – to cut off a piece of bread from a larger loaf.
разрезать хлеб – to cut through or split bread (e.g. cutting the loaf in half).

So Мама порезала хлеб is a general statement that she cut bread, without specifying the exact way.

Why is there no word for the or some before хлеб?

Russian does not have articles like the or a / some. The noun хлеб by itself can mean:

bread in general
the bread (already known from context)
some bread (an indefinite amount)

If needed, Russian adds other words: этот хлеб (this bread), тот хлеб (that bread), немного хлеба (a little bread), etc.

What case is хлеб in, and why does its form not change?

Here хлеб is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the action (порезала что? хлеб).

For inanimate masculine singular nouns like хлеб, the accusative form is identical to the nominative:

Nominative: хлеб
Accusative: хлеб

So the case changed, but the ending didn’t.

Does на столе mean “on the table” or “at the table”?

Literally, на столе means on the table – it describes location on the surface of the table.

In real life, cutting bread usually means it is both on the table and you are at the table, but if you want to stress “sitting/standing at the table”, Russian more often uses за столом:

Мама порезала хлеб за столом. – Mom cut bread while (sitting/standing) at the table.

What is the difference between на столе and на стол?

The preposition на can take:

Prepositional case (location): на столе = on the table (where?)
Accusative case (direction): на стол = onto the table (where to?)

Compare:

Хлеб лежит на столе. – The bread is lying on the table.
Мама положила хлеб на стол. – Mom put the bread onto the table.

In Мама порезала хлеб на столе, we talk about where the cutting happened, not where the bread was moved.

Why does стол change to столе?

Стол is a masculine noun in the nominative case. After на when it means “on (a surface)”, we usually use the prepositional case:

Nominative: стол
Prepositional: (на) столе

Masculine nouns like стол typically add -е in the prepositional case: стол → столе, дом → доме, лес → лесу (here is an exception with -у, but it’s still prepositional).

Where is the stress in порезала, and how do I pronounce it?

The stress is on the second syllable: порЕзала.
Approximate pronunciation: pa-RYE-za-la (all vowels reduced except the stressed е).

Stresses in the sentence:

мАма – stress on ма-
порЕзала – stress on -ре-
хлЕб – stress on хлеб (only syllable)
на столЕ – stress on -ле

Unstressed о in Russian usually sounds like a.

Can I change the word order, like Мама на столе порезала хлеб or Хлеб мама порезала на столе?

Russian word order is flexible, but meaning and emphasis change:

Мама порезала хлеб на столе. – Neutral: Mom cut bread on the table.
Хлеб мама порезала на столе. – Emphasis on хлеб (it was the bread that Mom cut, maybe not something else).
Мама на столе порезала хлеб. – Sounds like Mom was on top of the table when she cut the bread; this is usually a joke or very unusual image.

The original order is the most natural, neutral version.

Does мама here mean specifically my mom, or just “a mom / the mom”?

Russian has no articles, so мама can correspond to Mom, my mom, a mom, or the mom, depending on context.

In everyday family speech, мама usually implies my/our mom, and the possessive моя is often omitted:

Мама порезала хлеб. – In context, often Mom cut the bread.
To be explicit, you can say моя мама порезала хлеб – my mom cut the bread.

Could порезала хлеб ever mean “cut the table” by accident, not the bread?

No. In Мама порезала хлеб на столе, the direct object is хлеб, so the verb порезала clearly applies to хлеб. It cannot mean she cut the table itself.

To say she cut the table, you would need стол as the object:

Мама порезала стол. – Mom cut/damaged the table.

Can порезать also mean “to cut oneself”? Is there any ambiguity here?

Yes, with a reflexive ending it can mean “to cut oneself”:

Мама порезалась. – Mom cut herself.

In our sentence, порезала хлеб is not reflexive; it is clearly about cutting the bread. The presence of the object хлеб removes the reflexive meaning.

How would I say “Mom was cutting bread on the table” or “Mom will cut bread on the table”?

Use the imperfective for the ongoing past, and the future (perfective or imperfective) for future actions:

Ongoing/continuous past:
- Мама резала хлеб на столе. – Mom was cutting bread on the table.
Simple completed future:
- Мама порежет хлеб на столе. – Mom will cut (and finish cutting) bread on the table.
Future process or repeated action:
- Мама будет резать хлеб на столе. – Mom will be cutting bread on the table / will cut bread (as a repeated/ongoing action).