По утрам тётя долго причёсывается перед зеркалом.

In the mornings my aunt spends a long time combing her hair in front of the mirror.

Breakdown of По утрам тётя долго причёсывается перед зеркалом.

• перед: in front of
• утро: the morning
• зеркало: the mirror
• по: in
• долго: for a long time
• тётя: the aunt
• причёсываться: to comb one's hair

Questions & Answers about По утрам тётя долго причёсывается перед зеркалом.

Why is it по утрам and not в утрам or just утром?

Russian doesn’t use в with a plural time word like this, so в утрам is simply ungrammatical.

• по утрам literally: “by the mornings / on mornings” → idiomatically: “in the mornings / on weekday mornings”, with a strong idea of repetition / habit.
• утром (instrumental singular used adverbially) means “in the morning” and can be:
  • one specific morning: Сегодня утром… – This morning…
  • or a general habit: Утром я пью кофе. – In the morning I drink coffee.

по утрам focuses more clearly on “on (all) mornings, usually, regularly”, while утром is more neutral and can mean either a single morning or a general time of day, depending on context.

What case is утрам in по утрам, and why is it used?

Утрам is dative plural of утро (morning).

• Singular: утро
• Plural nominative: утра
• Plural dative: утрам

The preposition по often takes the dative plural to express repeated time:

• по утрам – in the mornings
• по вечерам – in the evenings
• по воскресеньям – on Sundays

So по + dative plural here means “on (every) X,” with a habitual/repeated nuance.

Can I say по утрам and каждое утро interchangeably?

Often yes, but they have a slightly different flavor.

• по утрам – “in the mornings (as a rule, generally)”
  
  • hints at a regular, habitual pattern; sounds a bit more “collective” (all mornings as a group)
• каждое утро – “every morning”
  • emphasizes each individual morning one by one

In most everyday contexts you can swap them:

• По утрам тётя долго причёсывается…
• Каждое утро тётя долго причёсывается…

The meaning is practically the same; каждое утро can feel a bit more explicit and concrete.

Why is there no “my” in тётя? Does it mean my aunt or just an aunt?

Russian normally omits possessive pronouns (мой, твой, наш, etc.) with close family members when it’s clear from context whose relative it is.

So:

• Тётя долго причёсывается…
  is usually understood as “My aunt combs her hair for a long time…”

If you want to stress which aunt, you can say:

• Моя тётя долго причёсывается… – My aunt… (maybe as opposed to someone else’s aunt)

But in everyday speech, just тётя commonly implies “my/our aunt” (or the main aunt in the context).

What’s the nuance of the word тётя? Is it always a literal aunt?

Not always. Тётя is:

1. Literally: “aunt” – your mother’s or father’s sister (or their wife).
2. Colloquially: used by children (and sometimes adults) to refer to an unfamiliar adult woman, similar to “lady”:
   • Тётя в магазине – the lady in the shop

Related words:

• тётка – more colloquial, can sound rough or slightly negative (“some woman”, “that woman”).
• тётенька – diminutive, often polite/baby-talk: “auntie / nice lady”.

In your sentence, it’s neutral and most likely means a specific aunt or a known woman in the family.

Why is the verb причёсывается reflexive (with -ся)? Could I say причёсывает волосы instead?

Причёсываться is reflexive because the action is done to oneself:

• причёсывать (кого? что?) – to comb/brush (someone/something)
• причёсываться – to comb/brush oneself (one’s own hair)

In тётя долго причёсывается, the -ся means “she is combing herself (her hair)”, so you don’t need an object.

You can say:

• Тётя долго причёсывает волосы перед зеркалом.

That’s grammatically correct, but it sounds a bit heavier and more explicit. The reflexive verb причёсывается is more natural for “she’s doing her hair / she’s brushing her hair” as a routine personal action.

What’s the difference between причёсываться and причесаться?

They are imperfective / perfective partners:

• причёсываться (imperfective)

  • process, repeated/habitual action, or “was combing”
  • used in your sentence for a habit:
    • По утрам тётя долго причёсывается… – In the mornings, aunt spends a long time combing her hair…

• причесаться (perfective)

  • a completed one-time action: “to comb oneself (and finish)”
  • e.g. Тётя причесалась и вышла. – Aunt combed her hair and left.

So we need причёсывается here because we’re talking about a regular, ongoing morning routine, not a single finished event.

Why is the present tense (причёсывается) used if we’re talking about a habitual action?

Russian uses the present tense of an imperfective verb to talk about habits and regular actions, just like English does:

• По утрам тётя долго причёсывается.
  – In the mornings, aunt spends a long time combing her hair. (a routine)

Other examples:

• Он по вечерам читает. – He reads in the evenings.
• Я каждый день бегаю. – I run every day.

If you wanted to say that in the past she used to do this regularly, you’d use the past imperfective:

• По утрам тётя долго причёсывалась перед зеркалом.

What exactly does долго mean here, and where can it go in the sentence?

Долго means “for a long time”.

In тётя долго причёсывается, it modifies the verb: she spends a long time on the action.

Possible positions (all are natural):

• По утрам тётя долго причёсывается перед зеркалом.
• По утрам тётя причёсывается долго перед зеркалом.
• По утрам тётя перед зеркалом долго причёсывается.

The most neutral is the original one, but Russian word order is flexible. Долго will always be understood as describing the duration of причёсывается.

Why is it перед зеркалом and not перед зеркало? What case is used and why?

Зеркалом is instrumental singular of зеркало.

• Nominative: зеркало – a mirror
• Instrumental: зеркалом – with/by/in front of a mirror

The preposition перед (“in front of / before”) requires the instrumental case when it indicates location or time:

• перед домом – in front of the house
• перед школой – in front of the school
• перед обедом – before lunch

So перед зеркалом literally means “in front of (by means of / with respect to) the mirror.”
Using перед зеркало would be incorrect.

What’s the difference between перед and words like около or напротив with places like зеркало?

All can relate to position, but they’re different:

• перед зеркалом – right in front of the mirror (facing it)
• около зеркала – near/by the mirror, not necessarily directly in front, just nearby
• напрротив зеркала – opposite the mirror, somewhere on the other side facing it, at a distance

In your sentence, we want the image of the aunt facing the mirror, so перед зеркалом is the natural choice.

Could I change the word order, for example: Тётя по утрам долго причёсывается перед зеркалом? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, you can change the word order; the basic meaning stays the same.

Grammatically fine options:

• По утрам тётя долго причёсывается перед зеркалом. (original; very neutral)
• Тётя по утрам долго причёсывается перед зеркалом.
• По утрам тётя перед зеркалом долго причёсывается.

Russian word order is relatively flexible and mostly affects emphasis or rhythm, not the core meaning.

Putting по утрам first slightly emphasizes the time frame (“As for mornings…”). Putting тётя first emphasizes who does the action more. But all of these are natural sentences.

Why do we see ё in тётя and причёсывается? Is it always written with ё?

The letter ё represents the sound /yo/.

• тётя – /TYO-tya/
• причёсывается – /pree‑SYO‑suh‑vahy‑tsya/

In modern Russian printing, ё is often written as е (without dots), especially in non-educational texts:

• тетя, причесывается

Native speakers usually know from context and memory where ё is supposed to be. In learning materials, dictionaries, and children’s books, ё is typically written with the dots to show the correct pronunciation.

So in normal books you might see причёсывается as причесывается, but it’s still pronounced with /yo/.