Learn Hardcore Russian: В большом окне магазина вечером отражается улица, и машины выглядят как будто игрушечные. - In the large shop window in the evening the street is reflected, and the cars look as if they were toy ones.

в большом окне – prepositional case
- окно → в окне (prepositional singular, neuter)
- большой → в большом (prepositional singular, neuter, agreeing with окне)
  After the preposition в with the meaning “in / inside (location)”, Russian normally uses the prepositional case:
- в окне – in the window
- в доме – in the house
- в городе – in the city
магазина – genitive case
- магазин → магазина (genitive singular)
  This is a noun–noun construction: окно магазина literally “the window of the shop”.
  Russian often uses the genitive to express this possessive relationship:
- дверь дома – the door of the house
- книга друга – a friend’s book
- окно магазина – the shop’s window / the store window

So the full structure is:
в [больш-ом окн-е] [магазин-а]
= in [the big window] [of the shop].

What is вечером grammatically? Which case is it, and why is it used here?

Вечером is the instrumental singular form of вечер (evening).

Form:

вечер (nominative) → вечером (instrumental)

Function: In Russian, time expressions in the instrumental often mean “during X / in the X”:

утром – in the morning
днём – in the daytime / during the day
вечером – in the evening
ночью – at night (this is a special form but fills the same role)

So вечером here works like an adverb:
вечером отражается улица – the street is reflected in the evening.

You normally do not say в вечере in this sense; instead you use вечером to say “in the evening”.

Why is the verb отражается in the singular? Shouldn’t it agree with окне or машины?

The verb always agrees with the subject, not with the nearest noun.

In В большом окне магазина вечером отражается улица, the grammatical subject is:

улица – the street (feminine singular, nominative)

Everything before the verb (в большом окне магазина вечером) is just setting place and time, not the subject.

So:

Subject: улица (singular)
Verb: отражается (3rd person singular)

That’s why it is отражается, not отражаются.

If you changed the subject to a plural, you would change the verb:

В большом окне магазина вечером отражаются машины.
In the big shop window in the evening, the cars are reflected.

What does the -ся in отражается mean? Why not just отражает?

The -ся ending (here -ется) marks a reflexive / middle / passive-like form of the verb.

Base verb:

отражать – to reflect (something)
- Окно отражает улицу. – The window reflects the street.

Reflexive form:

отражаться – to be reflected (no explicit agent)
- В окне отражается улица. – The street is reflected in the window.

So отражается here is like a passive in English:

Not: The window reflects the street
But: The street is reflected (in the window)

Russian often uses -ся for this kind of “the action happens to the subject / by itself / without naming the agent.”

Can I change the word order to Улица вечером отражается в большом окне магазина? Is that still correct, and what’s the difference?

Yes, Улица вечером отражается в большом окне магазина is grammatically correct.

Russian word order is relatively flexible. Both versions are possible:

В большом окне магазина вечером отражается улица.
- Starts with the location and time, then gives you the subject.
- Feels like: In the big shop window in the evening, (what happens?) the street is reflected.
Улица вечером отражается в большом окне магазина.
- Starts with the subject (улица).
- Feels more like a straightforward description of what the street does:
  The street is reflected in the big shop window in the evening.

The choice mostly affects emphasis and rhythm, not basic meaning:

Initial в большом окне магазина: we focus first on the window view.
Initial улица: we focus first on the street and what happens to it.

Why is there a comma before и in …отражается улица, и машины выглядят…?

There are two independent clauses here, each with its own subject and verb:

В большом окне магазина вечером отражается улица
- Subject: улица
- Verb: отражается
(В большом окне магазина вечером) машины выглядят как будто игрушечные
- Subject: машины
- Verb: выглядят

In Russian, when и joins two full clauses (two separate “subject + predicate” parts), you normally put a comma before и:

Она читает, и он пишет.
Солнце село, и стало холодно.

So the comma follows the standard rule: it separates two clauses that each could stand as a sentence by itself.

What exactly does выглядят mean in машины выглядят как будто игрушечные?

Выглядят is the 3rd person plural present of выглядеть, which means “to look / to appear” (in the sense of appearance).

So:

машины выглядят… – the cars look… / the cars appear…

Important points:

выглядеть is intransitive here – it does not take a direct object.
It usually connects to adjectives or phrases describing appearance:
- Она выглядит усталой. – She looks tired.
- Дом выглядит старым. – The house looks old.
- Машины выглядят как будто игрушечные. – The cars look as if they are toy (cars).

So выглядят here just links машины with the description that follows (как будто игрушечные).

In как будто игрушечные, where is the verb “are”? Why can Russian leave it out?

Russian usually omits the present tense of “to be” (быть) in simple “X is Y” sentences.

In English you must say:

The cars *are small.*
They *are toy cars.*

In Russian, in the present tense, you normally drop есть (is / are):

Машины маленькие. – literally Cars small.
Они игрушечные. – literally They toy.

So машины выглядят как будто игрушечные is understood as:

машины выглядят как будто (они) [есть] игрушечные (машины)
The cars look as if they are toy (cars).

The linking verb is simply understood and not pronounced in the present tense.

What does как будто mean exactly, and how is it different from just как?

Как будто is a set expression meaning “as if / as though” and often implies something imaginary, unreal, or only in appearance.

как будто игрушечные – as if (they were) toy (cars)

Difference from как:

как – like, as (simple comparison)
- Машины как игрушечные. – The cars are like toy cars. (neutral comparison)
как будто – as if, as though (stronger sense of “only in appearance”, often not literally true)
- Машины выглядят как будто игрушечные. – The cars look as if they were toy cars (but they actually aren’t).

So как будто sounds more vivid and points more strongly to the idea that this is just how it seems.

Why is игрушечные used without a noun? Where is the word for “cars”?

In как будто игрушечные, the word машины is understood from context and omitted.

Russian often drops a repeated noun if it’s clear what you mean:

В комнате стоят стулья. Два старые, а один новый.
Literally: In the room there are chairs. Two (are) old, and one (is) new.
(The word стулья is not repeated.)

Here:

машины выглядят как будто игрушечные (машины).

The full phrase would be игрушечные машины (toy cars), but since машины has just been mentioned, it is natural to drop it and keep only the adjective игрушечные as a short noun phrase meaning “toy ones”.

Russian speakers do this a lot with adjectives:

Возьми красное (вино). – Take the red (wine).
Мне нравятся современные (книги). – I like modern (books).

Why is it в окне, not на окне? In English we say “in the window” but conceptually it feels like “on the glass”.

Russian treats the inside surface of a window as a space you look into, so it uses в + prepositional (в окне) to talk about things that you see in the window (reflections, displays, etc.):

В окне отражается улица. – The street is reflected in the window.
В окне горит свет. – There is light in the window.
В окнах стояли цветы. – There were flowers in the windows.

На окне is more literal “on the window (surface/ledge)” and is used for things physically on it:

На окне сидела муха. – A fly was sitting on the window.
На окне стояла ваза. – A vase was standing on the window (sill).

For reflections, displays, what you see through the glass, Russian normally uses в окне.

Why is it магазина and not магазин in окне магазина?

Because магазина is in the genitive case, showing a possessive / “of” relationship:

окно магазина – the window of the shop / the shop’s window

Pattern:

магазин (nominative) – shop
магазина (genitive) – of the shop

This is a very common pattern in Russian:

окно дома – the window of the house
книга учителя – the teacher’s book
машина соседа – the neighbor’s car

So the structure is:

в окне (чего?) магазина – in the window of what? of the shop
→ answer in genitive: магазина.

How are the main difficult words in this sentence stressed and pronounced?

Here are the stressed syllables (marked in bold):

вЕчером – VE-che-rom (stress on the first syllable)
большОм – bal‑SHOM (stress on -шом)
окнЕ – ak‑NYE (stress on -не)
магазИна – ma‑ga‑ZEE‑na (stress on -зи-)
отражАется – a‑tra‑ZHÁ‑et‑sya (stress on -жа-)
Улица – OO‑li‑tsa (stress on -у-)
мАшины – MÁ‑shi‑ny (stress on -ма-)
вЫглядят – VY‑gly‑dyat (stress on вы-)
игрУшечные – i‑GRU‑shech‑nye (stress on -гру-)

Pay special attention to:

отражАется – not отрАжается or отражаЕтся, but отражАется
вЫглядят – stress on the first syllable
игрУшечные – stress follows the noun игрУшка (toy).