Learn Hardcore Russian: Мой брат очень общительный и легко находит новых друзей. - My brother is very sociable and easily finds new friends.

friendly → more about being kind and pleasant to people
- closer Russian word: дружелюбный
talkative → focuses on speaking a lot
- closer Russian word: разговорчивый
sociable → enjoys company, easily connects with people
- this is общительный

So общительный is primarily about being open to communication and social contact, not just talking a lot and not just being kind.

What grammatical form is общительный here, and why is there no word for “is”?

Общительный is:

an adjective
masculine
singular
nominative case

It agrees with брат (brother), which is also masculine singular nominative.

In English, we say: My brother is very sociable.
In Russian, in the present tense, the verb to be (быть) is usually omitted:

Мой брат очень общительный.
Literally: My brother very sociable.

The “is” is understood from the structure, so you don’t say есть here:
❌ Мой брат есть очень общительный — sounds wrong in modern Russian.

What part of speech is легко, and where does it come from?

Легко is an adverb meaning easily.

It is related to the adjective лёгкий (light / easy):

лёгкий – easy (adjective)
легко – easily (adverb)

Points to notice:

Spelling: легко (no ё) but pronunciation is with stress on the last syllable: le-gKO.
It doesn’t change its form for gender, number, or case, because adverbs in Russian are invariable.

Why is it легко находит and not находит легко? Does word order matter here?

The basic Russian word order is quite flexible, but there is a default neutral order.

Он легко находит друзей. – neutral, normal: He easily finds friends.
Он находит друзей легко. – possible, but sounds a bit more marked/emphatic, often used if you want to stress легко at the end.

In your sentence, легко находит is the most natural, neutral order:

adverb (легко) → describes how the action is done
verb (находит) → the action itself
object (новых друзей)

Changing the order is allowed, but it changes emphasis or style slightly.

What tense and aspect is находит, and why not найдёт?

Находит is:

3rd person singular
present tense
imperfective aspect
from the verb находить (to find, in general/repeatedly)

It is used here because we are talking about a general ability or repeated action:

Он легко находит новых друзей.
He easily finds new friends (as a rule, in general).

Найдёт is:

3rd person singular
future tense
perfective aspect
from the verb найти (to find once / to successfully find)

For example:

Он легко найдёт новых друзей.
He will easily find new friends (in this specific situation, in the future).

So the original sentence uses находит to describe his usual character/ability, not one specific future event.

What case is друзей, and why not друзья?

Друзей is in the accusative plural (direct object), but its form is the same as the genitive plural.

The noun:

singular: друг (friend)
nominative plural: друзья (friends)
accusative plural (animate): друзей
genitive plural: друзей

In your sentence:

находит (кого?) друзей – finds whom? friends
→ this requires accusative case

For animate masculine nouns, the accusative plural form is identical to the genitive plural form, which is why you see друзей instead of друзья.

Why is it новых друзей and not новые друзья?

Because новых друзей is in the accusative plural and has to agree with the noun друзей.

The verb находит takes a direct object in the accusative:
- находит (кого?) новых друзей – finds (whom?) new friends
друзей – accusative plural, animate
The adjective новых must match:
- masculine animate plural
- accusative case (same form as genitive)

So:

новые друзья – nominative plural (subject)
e.g. Новые друзья помогают ему. – New friends help him.
новых друзей – accusative plural (object)
e.g. Он находит новых друзей. – He finds new friends.

In your sentence, they are the object, so новых друзей is correct.

Can новых друзей move to a different place in the sentence?

Yes, Russian word order is flexible, and you can move новых друзей for emphasis. All of these are grammatically possible:

Мой брат очень общительный и легко находит новых друзей.
– neutral, most natural.
Мой брат очень общительный и новых друзей легко находит.
– emphasizes новых друзей a bit more.
Мой брат новых друзей легко находит и очень общительный.
– grammatically possible but sounds unusual / stylistically odd.

For everyday speech, the original order is best. Other orders are used rarely and usually for stylistic or emotional effect.

Why is there no он before легко находит? Could I say it?

You could say:

Мой брат очень общительный и он легко находит новых друзей.

This is grammatically correct, but in Russian it often sounds more natural to omit the repeated subject in a compound sentence when it’s clearly understood:

Мой брат очень общительный и легко находит новых друзей.

Once you’ve said Мой брат, it’s obvious that the second part is also about him, so repeating он is unnecessary unless you want to emphasize him for some reason.

Why is it мой брат, not моя брат or мои брат? How does мой work here?

Мой is a possessive pronoun that must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

брат – masculine, singular, nominative
So the correct form is мой:

Forms of мой:

masculine singular nominative: мой (мой брат)
feminine singular nominative: моя (моя сестра)
neuter singular nominative: моё (моё письмо)
plural nominative: мои (мои друзья)

So:

мой брат – my brother
моя сестра – my sister
мои друзья – my friends

Here, because брат is masculine singular subject, we use мой.

Can I use дружелюбный or разговорчивый instead of общительный? Would the meaning change?

You can, but the nuance changes:

общительный – sociable, easily interacts with others, loves socializing.
дружелюбный – friendly, kind, well-disposed toward people.
разговорчивый – talkative, likes to talk a lot.

Compare:

Мой брат очень общительный – He’s sociable, easily joins in conversations, makes connections.
Мой брат очень дружелюбный – He’s kind and friendly; people feel he’s nice to them.
Мой брат очень разговорчивый – He talks a lot.

In the original sentence, общительный fits best with the idea that he easily finds new friends.

Is there a difference between очень общительный and очень общителен?

Yes, there is a stylistic difference.

Мой брат очень общительный.
– normal, neutral, everyday speech. Long-form adjective (общительный).
Мой брат очень общителен.
– more bookish/formal/literary. Uses the short-form adjective (общителен).

Short-form adjectives are often used:

in more formal or written style
when the focus is more on the state / quality right now rather than as a permanent characteristic (though here the difference is slight)

Both are correct, but очень общительный is more common in conversational Russian.

How do you pronounce общительный and друзей? Are there any tricky sounds?

Yes, they can be tricky.

Общительный:

Stress: обЩИтельный
Pronunciation: [аб-щИ-тель-ный]
- бщ is pronounced like пщ or пшч; you don’t really hear a clear б.
- The о at the start is unstressed and sounds more like a: абщительный.

Друзей:

Stress: дру-ЗЕЙ
Pronunciation: [дру-зЕЙ]
- The final й is like English y in “boy”.
- Remember it’s -зей, not -зэй or -зейэ; it’s one syllable at the end.

So the rhythm of the phrase is:

Мой брат о-БЩИ-тель-ный и лег-КО на-ХО-дит но-ВЫХ дру-ЗЕЙ.