В школьной тетради она пишет своё первое стихотворение.

In her school notebook she is writing her first poem.

Breakdown of В школьной тетради она пишет своё первое стихотворение.

• писать: to write
• в: in
• она: she
• первый: first
• тетрадь: the notebook
• свой: her own
• стихотворение: the poem
• школьный: school

Questions & Answers about В школьной тетради она пишет своё первое стихотворение.

Why is it в школьной тетради, not в школьная тетрадь?

Because after the preposition в meaning in, Russian normally uses the prepositional case to indicate location.

• The basic (dictionary) form is школьная тетрадь (nominative case: a school notebook).
• To say in a school notebook, both words must go into the prepositional singular:
  • школьная → школьной
  • тетрадь → тетради

So:

• школьная тетрадь = a school notebook (subject, dictionary form)
• в школьной тетради = in a school notebook (location)

Using в школьная тетрадь would be ungrammatical: the preposition в demands a case change.

Why does тетрадь become тетради in this sentence?

Тетрадь is a feminine noun ending in a soft sign (ь). In the singular, it is declined like this:

• Nominative: тетрадь (notebook) – dictionary form
• Genitive: тетради
• Dative: тетради
• Accusative: тетрадь
• Instrumental: тетрадью
• Prepositional: тетради

After в meaning in (location), we use the prepositional case, so тетрадь → тетради.

So в тетради literally means in (the) notebook.

Why is it школьной тетради and not школьная тетради?

Adjectives in Russian must agree with the noun in:

• gender
• number
• case

The noun тетрадь here is:

• feminine
• singular
• prepositional (тетради)

So the adjective школьный has to match that pattern:

• feminine, singular, prepositional: школьной

That is why we get в школьной тетради and not в школьная тетради or в школьной тетрадь.

What is the difference between в тетради and в тетрадь?

The preposition в can take different cases with different meanings:

• в тетради (prepositional) – in the notebook, focusing on location:

  • Она пишет в тетради. = She is writing in the notebook. (on its pages, inside it)

• в тетрадь (accusative) – into the notebook, focusing on the direction or target of the action:

  • Она пишет в тетрадь, а не на листке. = She writes into the notebook, not on a loose sheet.

In your sentence, в школьной тетради emphasizes the place where she is writing, so the prepositional case is used.

Why is it своё первое стихотворение and not её первое стихотворение?

Свой / своя / своё / свои is the reflexive possessive pronoun. It usually means one’s own and is used when the possessor is the subject of the clause.

Here:

• subject: она
• thing possessed: стихотворение
• possessor = subject → use своё

So:

• Она пишет своё первое стихотворение.
  She is writing her (own) first poem.

You could say её первое стихотворение, and it would be grammatically correct, but it often suggests someone else’s first poem that belongs to her, not necessarily to the subject of the sentence. Своё makes it clear that the poem belongs to the same она who is doing the writing.

Why is it своё, not свой or своя?

Свой changes form to agree with the noun it modifies, not with the person:

• masculine: свой
• feminine: своя
• neuter: своё
• plural: свои

The noun стихотворение is:

• neuter
• singular
• accusative (стихотворение)

So the correct form is своё:

• своё стихотворение = one’s own poem (neuter)
• свой дом = one’s own house (masculine)
• своя тетрадь = one’s own notebook (feminine)
• свои книги = one’s own books (plural)

Why is первое in the neuter form первое, not первый or первая?

Again, adjectives (and ordinal numbers like первый) agree with the noun they modify.

• стихотворение is a neuter noun.
• Therefore первый must take the neuter form: первое.

Compare:

• первый день (masc.) – first day
• первая тетрадь (fem.) – first notebook
• первое стихотворение (neut.) – first poem

So своё первое стихотворение is fully consistent:

• своё – neuter
• первое – neuter
• стихотворение – neuter

Why is the verb пишет used, and not a past-tense form like написала?

Пишет is the present tense of the imperfective verb писать (to write).

Russian verbs have aspect:

• Imperfective (писать): process, repeated action, or a general fact.

  • Она пишет своё первое стихотворение.
    She is writing / writes her first poem. (focus on the ongoing process)

• Perfective (написать): a completed, one-time result.

  • Она написала своё первое стихотворение.
    She wrote / has written her first poem. (the poem is now finished)

The sentence with пишет presents the action as happening now, in progress, not yet completed.

Can I change the word order, for example: Она в школьной тетради пишет своё первое стихотворение?

Yes, Russian word order is relatively flexible. All of these are grammatically correct:

• В школьной тетради она пишет своё первое стихотворение.
  Slight emphasis on the place (in her school notebook).

• Она в школьной тетради пишет своё первое стихотворение.
  Neutral, but она is now the clear starting point (subject), and в школьной тетради is inserted as additional information.

• Она пишет своё первое стихотворение в школьной тетради.
  Slight emphasis on what she writes (her first poem), with the place added at the end.

Russian uses word order more for emphasis and information structure than for basic grammar, which is mostly carried by endings and prepositions.

What exactly does стихотворение mean, and how is it different from стихи or поэма?

• стихотворение – a poem, typically a single, self-contained poem. It is a neuter noun.

  • Её первое стихотворение – her first poem.

• стихи – literally verses, but very commonly used as poetry or poems in general (plural only).

  • Она пишет стихи. – She writes poetry / poems.

• поэма – a long narrative poem (like an epic poem). Feminine noun.

  • Он написал поэму. – He wrote a (long) poem / epic.

In your sentence, стихотворение is the normal, precise word for a (single) poem.

How do I know that стихотворение is neuter?

Some common indicators:

1. The ending -е in the nominative singular with this shape (‑ение) is often neuter:

   • здание (building) – neuter
   • сообщение (message) – neuter
   • стихотворение (poem) – neuter

2. It takes neuter adjectives/pronouns:

   • новое стихотворение
   • своё стихотворение
   • первое стихотворение

Over time you will simply memorize the gender of frequent nouns, but patterns like ‑ение being neuter are very helpful.

Why isn’t there a word for a or the in this sentence?

Russian has no articles like English a / an / the. The ideas of new vs known, specific vs non-specific are usually shown by:

• context
• word order
• sometimes by demonstratives (этот, тот) if you really need to emphasize this/that.

In this sentence:

• своё первое стихотворение is clearly her first poem (specific, unique by meaning).
• Russian doesn’t need an article to show that; первое and своё already make it clear.

So В школьной тетради она пишет своё первое стихотворение naturally translates as
In her school notebook, she is writing her first poem, even though Russian doesn’t add a or the.