Breakdown of Моя подруга сидит на диете и считает калории.
Questions & Answers about Моя подруга сидит на диете и считает калории.
In Russian, possessive pronouns must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.
- подруга is a feminine noun (you can see that from the ending -а in the nominative singular).
- The feminine singular form of мой is моя.
So:
- мой друг = my (male) friend
- моя подруга = my (female) friend
- моё письмо = my letter (neuter)
- мои друзья = my friends (plural)
Using мой подруга would be ungrammatical because мой is masculine, while подруга is feminine.
- друг = (male) friend, or generically “friend” when gender isn’t specified.
- подруга = female friend.
About romance:
- For a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, Russians more commonly say:
- моя девушка = my girlfriend
- мой парень / мой молодой человек = my boyfriend
Подруга usually means female friend, often with a non-romantic / platonic implication, especially between women.
If a man says моя подруга, it can mean:
- just “a female friend”, or
- sometimes “girlfriend”, but that’s more ambiguous and depends on context and tone.
In textbooks, подруга is safest to understand as (female) friend.
Сидеть literally means “to sit,” but in Russian there are many idiomatic expressions where сидеть means “to be in some state or situation for a period of time.
Сидеть на диете is a fixed expression meaning:
- to be on a diet, to stick to a diet.
Other similar idioms:
- сидеть на шее (у кого‑то) – to live off someone, literally “sit on someone’s neck”
- сидеть на таблетках – to be dependent on pills
- сидеть на наркотиках – to be on drugs
So моя подруга сидит на диете is idiomatic Russian; you don’t translate it literally (“my friend sits on a diet”), but as “my friend is on a diet.”
With диета, Russian uses a fixed collocation:
- сидеть на диете – to be on a diet
In Russian, на is used not only for physical surfaces (“on the table”) but also for many activities, roles, or states:
- на работе – at work
- на уроке – in class
- на концерте – at a concert
На диете fits this pattern: it’s understood as being “on” a certain regime or program.
Using в диете here would be incorrect and sound unnatural. You just have to memorize на диете as the correct phrase.
Диете is the prepositional case form of диета.
The preposition на can take either the accusative (movement onto something) or the prepositional (location/state on something).
- на что? (onto what?) → accusative
- на чём? (on what?) → prepositional
Here we have a state, not movement:
- сидеть на чём? → сидеть на диете (Prepositional)
Declension of диета (feminine, 1st declension):
- Nom.: диета
- Gen.: диеты
- Dat.: диете
- Acc.: диету
- Instr.: диетой
- Prep.: о диете / на диете
So диете is correct because it answers на чём?
Russian does not have a separate “present continuous” form like English. The simple present tense in Russian can cover:
- current, ongoing actions
- regular or habitual actions
- general states
So сидит на диете и считает калории can be understood as:
- “My friend is on a diet and is counting calories” (now / these days), or
- “My friend is on a diet and counts calories” (as an ongoing habit)
Context usually decides whether you think of it as “is _‑ing” or simple present in English. In most natural English, you’d say:
- “My friend is on a diet and counts calories,” or
- “My friend is on a diet and is counting calories (these days).”
Grammatically, Russian uses the same present for both.
Because the verbs belong to different conjugation types.
Сидеть (to sit) – 2nd conjugation
- я сижу
- ты сидишь
- он/она сидит
- мы сидим
- вы сидите
- они сидят
Считать (to count) – 1st conjugation
- я считаю
- ты считаешь
- он/она считает
- мы считаем
- вы считаете
- они считают
So in the 3rd person singular:
- сидеть → сидит
- считать → считает
Different infinitive endings (-еть, -ать) lead to different present tense endings.
Считать has two common meanings:
to count (mathematical counting)
- считать деньги – to count money
- считать калории – to count calories
to think, to consider (to hold an opinion)
- Она считает, что это важно. – She thinks (considers) that this is important.
- Я считаю его своим другом. – I consider him my friend.
In the sentence считает калории, the direct object калории clearly points to the “count” meaning. You would not interpret this as “she considers calories.”
Калории is accusative plural, but for inanimate nouns in Russian, the accusative plural = nominative plural in form.
- Nominative singular: калория (a calorie)
- Accusative singular: калорию
- Nominative plural: калории
- Accusative plural: калории (same as nominative plural)
The verb считать is a transitive verb and takes a direct object in the accusative:
- считать что? – калории
So grammatically, it is accusative plural, but it happens to look the same as the nominative plural.
(With numbers, you’ll also see other cases, e.g. 100 калорий – genitive plural.)
- считать – imperfective: focuses on process or repeated action
- посчитать / сосчитать – perfective: focuses on a single, completed counting
In your sentence:
- (Она) считает калории. – She counts calories / She is counting calories (as a habit or ongoing process).
Perfective versions:
- Она посчитала калории. – She has counted the calories / She counted the calories (finished that action).
- Она посчитает калории. – She will count the calories (in the future, once).
You cannot use посчитать in the present with the meaning “is counting”: the present form of a perfective verb refers to the future.
For describing someone who is generally dieting and always tracking calories, Russian naturally uses the imperfective: считает калории.
Yes. Russian word order is relatively flexible, and all of these are grammatically possible:
- Моя подруга сидит на диете и считает калории.
- Моя подруга на диете сидит и считает калории.
- Моя подруга сидит на диете и калории считает.
- На диете сидит моя подруга и считает калории. (more marked / stylistic)
The neutral, most typical word order here is the original:
Моя подруга сидит на диете и считает калории.
Moving words around usually changes focus or emphasis rather than basic meaning. For example, калории считает at the end can slightly emphasize that it’s specifically calories she counts, not something else.
As a learner, stick to the neutral order until you’re comfortable with nuances.
Here are the main stresses (bolded syllables) and rough phonetic hints:
- Моя́ – [ma‑YA] (stress on я)
- подру́га – [pa‑DRU‑ga] (stress on ру)
- сиди́т – [si‑DIT] (stress on дит)
- на – [na] (unstressed, short)
- диете́ – [di‑YE‑te] (stress on те, but the ье cluster is one syllable)
- и – [i] (like English “ee”)
- счита́ет – [schi‑TA‑yet], with [щ] as a long “shch” sound, stress on та
- калóрии – [ka‑LO‑ree‑i], stress on ло
Approximate IPA:
- Моя подруга сидит на диете и считает калории
/mɐˈja pɐˈdruɡə sʲɪˈdʲit nɐ dʲɪˈjetʲe i ɕːɪˈtajɪt kɐˈlorʲɪjɪ/
For understanding, the most important things are:
- stress on моя́, подру́га, сиди́т, диете́, счита́ет, калóрии
- the long щ sound in считает (/ɕː/).