Learn Hardcore Russian: На тумбочке лежит её любимая расчёска, без которой она не выходит из дома. - On the bedside table lies her favorite comb, without which she doesn’t leave the house.

тумбочка = a small bedside table or little cabinet (often next to a bed).
на
- тумбочке: here на takes the prepositional case because it answers “где?” (where?), i.e. a fixed location, not movement.
The prepositional singular of тумбочка is тумбочке (ending -е).

Compare:

на тумбочке – on the nightstand (location)
на тумбочку – onto the nightstand (movement, accusative case)

Why is the verb лежит used here instead of something like есть or находится?

Лежит is the 3rd person singular of лежать (to lie, to be lying). Russian often uses лежать / стоять / висеть instead of a general to be for objects:

лежать – lying horizontally on a surface (a book on a table, a comb on a nightstand)
стоять – standing vertically or upright (a bottle, a wardrobe)
висеть – hanging (a picture on the wall)

So лежит её любимая расчёска is literally “her favorite comb is lying (there)”, which is the natural way to say “her favorite comb is on the nightstand”.

You wouldn’t use есть here; есть as “there is” sounds either archaic or very deliberate in modern Russian. Находится is possible but more neutral and less visual; лежит paints a clearer picture of how the object is positioned.

Why does the sentence start with На тумбочке лежит… instead of Её любимая расчёска лежит на тумбочке?

Both orders are grammatically correct:

На тумбочке лежит её любимая расчёска.
Её любимая расчёска лежит на тумбочке.

Russian word order is flexible and often used to highlight what is new or important.

Starting with На тумбочке emphasizes the location: you’re first drawing attention to the nightstand, and then saying what is there. In English we might similarly say: “On the nightstand is her favorite comb.” for stylistic emphasis.

The version starting with Её любимая расчёска emphasizes the comb itself, more like a neutral “Her favorite comb is on the nightstand.”

What is the difference between её and своя here? Could we say На тумбочке лежит своя любимая расчёска?

In this sentence, её is the normal and correct choice, because it clearly means “her (someone else’s) favorite comb”.

свой is a reflexive possessive (my own, your own, his own, her own, etc.) and usually refers back to the subject of the same clause.

её любимая расчёска – her favorite comb (belonging to her, may or may not be the subject)
своя любимая расчёска – one’s own favorite comb (belonging to the subject of that clause)

In the main clause, the subject is not expressed; it’s just лежит её любимая расчёска. So своя here would be confusing and unnatural. However, in a sentence where она is the subject of the same clause, you could use своя:

Она взяла свою любимую расчёску. – She took her (own) favorite comb.

In the original sentence, keep её.

Why is любимая in the feminine form?

Любимая must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun it describes.

расчёска is a feminine noun (ends in -а; dictionary form расчёска).
It is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative singular.

Therefore, the adjective любимый must be:

gender: feminine
number: singular
case: nominative

That gives любимая:

её любимая расчёска – her favorite comb (fem. nom. sg.)

What exactly does расчёска mean? Comb or hairbrush?

Расчёска is a general everyday word for an object used to comb or brush hair. It can refer to:

a comb (flat with teeth)
a hairbrush (with bristles, with or without a handle)

If you need to be very specific, you can say:

гребень – more specifically a comb
щётка для волос – more clearly a hairbrush

But in normal speech, расчёска is enough and natural for the thing you use on your hair.

What is the structure and grammar of без которой? Why которой and what case is it?

Без которой literally means “without which” and introduces a relative clause.

без is a preposition that always takes the genitive case.
The relative pronoun который must:
- refer back to расчёска (feminine, singular)
- be in the genitive, because it follows без

Feminine singular genitive of который is которой.

So:

расчёска, без которой…
→ the comb, without which …

Grammatically:

без
- которой (fem. gen. sg.) = “without which”, replacing “without the comb” (без расчёски).

Why is there a comma before без которой?

The comma marks the start of a relative clause (a subordinate clause) that describes расчёска:

…её любимая расчёска, без которой она не выходит из дома.
→ “…her favorite comb, without which she doesn’t leave the house.”

In Russian, relative clauses introduced by который are normally set off by commas, similar to English:

книга, которую я читаю – the book that I am reading
человек, с которым я говорил – the person I spoke with
расчёска, без которой… – the comb, without which …

Why is it она не выходит из дома and not something like она никогда не выходит из дома? Is никогда implied?

Она не выходит из дома here expresses a general, habitual rule: she does not go out of the house without that comb.

In Russian, present-tense не + imperfective verb often has a “never / doesn’t ever (as a rule)” meaning when used with a clear condition:

Он не ест мясо. – He doesn’t eat meat (i.e. never eats meat, in general).
Она не выходит из дома без телефона. – She doesn’t leave the house without her phone.

Adding никогда would make the “never” even stronger or more explicit:

Она никогда не выходит из дома без неё. – She never leaves the house without it.

But even without никогда, the sentence in context is normally understood as a regular, habitual behavior.

Why is the verb выходит (imperfective) used instead of выйдет (perfective)?

Выходит is imperfective and in the present tense. In this context, it describes a repeated / habitual action:

Она не выходит из дома без расчёски.
→ She does not (as a rule) leave the house without the comb.

Use imperfective for:

habits, repeated actions: Он всегда читает перед сном.
general rules: Летом он не носит пальто.

The perfective выйдет would usually refer to one specific future event:

Она не выйдет из дома без расчёски.
→ She will not go out (this time / on that occasion) without the comb.

So выходит matches the idea of her usual habit.

Why do we say из дома and not от дома or с дома?

Из дома literally means “out of the house, from inside the house”.

из
- genitive is used for movement from the inside of something:
- из дома – out of the house
- из комнаты – out of the room
от
- genitive is from a point, person, or general vicinity:
- от дома до работы – from the house to work (distance between points)
- от друга – from a friend
с
- genitive is from the surface or top of something, or from an open area:
- со стола – from the table (off the table)
- с пляжа – from the beach

Leaving your home is conceptualized as going out of its interior, so из дома is the natural choice for “leave the house”: выходить из дома.

Why is the pronoun она repeated in без которой она не выходит из дома? Could it be omitted?

In the clause она не выходит из дома, она is the subject (she).

Russian often requires an explicit subject pronoun, especially in neutral modern style. Omitting она here would sound incomplete or incorrect:

✅ …без которой она не выходит из дома.
❌ …без которой не выходит из дома. (sounds like something is missing, unless context is very strong or poetic)

The relative pronoun которой refers to расчёска, not to the person, so it cannot serve as the subject она. You still need она to say who doesn’t leave the house.

Why is the word order её любимая расчёска and not любимая её расчёска?

Normal, neutral order in Russian is:

[possessive pronoun] + [adjective(s)] + [noun]

So:

её любимая расчёска – her favorite comb
мой старый друг – my old friend
наш новый дом – our new house

The variant любимая её расчёска is not grammatically wrong, but it is unusual and stylistically marked (poetic, expressive, or used for contrast, like “her favorite comb, not someone else’s”). In everyday speech and standard prose you should use её любимая расчёска.

How is её pronounced and why is it written with ё?

Её is pronounced [йи-Ё] (two syllables, stress on ё). The ё indicates:

the sound /yo/
that this syllable is stressed

In everyday Russian writing, ё is often written simply as е (so you might see ее), but the pronunciation remains [йи-Ё]. In teaching materials, dictionaries, and careful writing, ё is kept to show correct stress and sound.

So:

spelling in full: её
typical simplified spelling: ее
pronunciation: [йи-Ё] (ye-YO)

Can без которой она не выходит из дома be replaced with без неё она не выходит из дома? Is there any difference?

Yes, you can say:

На тумбочке лежит её любимая расчёска. Без неё она не выходит из дома.

Difference:

без которой… – a relative clause tightly attached to расчёска; it forms one complex sentence and sounds more like a single description:
- …её любимая расчёска, без которой она не выходит из дома.
Без неё… – uses the simple pronoun её instead of которой, and now you have two separate sentences.

Meaning is almost the same, but the original with без которой is a bit more formal / literary and more compact as a single sentence.