Learn Hardcore Russian: Мне легко заводить друзей в парке. - It is easy for me to make friends in the park.

If you said я легко заводжу друзей (correct: я легко завожу друзей), it would mean “I easily make friends,” focusing more on how you act, not on how easy it feels to you. The original focuses on your feeling / the level of difficulty.

What exactly is легко here — an adjective or an adverb?

In this sentence легко functions as a predicative adverb / category-of-state word. It’s not describing a verb directly like an ordinary adverb (e.g. “run quickly”), and it’s not an adjective agreeing with a noun either.

Instead, it works like:

Мне холодно. – I am cold. (literally: To me it-is-cold.)
Ему трудно. – It’s difficult for him.
Нам весело. – We’re having fun.

So легко here means it is easy (for someone) and combines with the dative (мне) and an infinitive (заводить).

You would not use the adjective лёгкий here (легкий):
✗ Мне лёгкий заводить друзей – incorrect.

Why is the verb in the infinitive (заводить) instead of a personal form like завожу?

Because of the construction:

(Dative) + легко / трудно / нужно / можно + infinitive

Examples:

Мне легко говорить по-русски. – It’s easy for me to speak Russian.
Ей трудно вставать рано. – It’s hard for her to get up early.
Нам нужно идти домой. – We need to go home.

So here:

Мне легко заводить друзей. – It’s easy for me to make friends.

If you say:

Я легко завожу друзей в парке.

this is grammatical, but it sounds more like a description of your skill / habit (“I easily make friends in the park”), while мне легко заводить… emphasizes the subjective ease for you.

Why is it заводить друзей, not something like делать друзей?

Делать друзей is wrong in Russian and sounds funny, like you are “manufacturing” friends.

The idiomatic verbs for “making friends” include:

заводить друзей – literally “to acquire / start having friends”
заводить знакомых – to make acquaintances
знакомиться с людьми – to get acquainted with people
находить друзей – to find friends (close in meaning)

So:

Мне легко заводить друзей в парке. – I easily make friends in the park.
Мне легко знакомиться с людьми в парке. – It’s easy for me to get to know people in the park.

Use заводить друзей, not делать друзей.

Why is it заводить, not завести? What’s the aspect difference here?

Заводить is imperfective, завести is perfective.

заводить друзей – to make friends in general, a repeated / habitual / ongoing process.
завести друзей – to make (some) friends once, to end up having them as a completed result.

In your sentence we talk about general ability or typical situation, so Russian uses the imperfective:

Мне легко заводить друзей в парке. – It’s (generally) easy for me to make friends in the park.

If you said:

Мне легко завести друзей в парке.

this would sound more like “It’s easy for me to (successfully) make some friends in the park (when I go there),” focusing on achieving the result once or in a limited situation.

Why is друзей used and not друзья?

Друзей is the accusative plural form of друг (friend). For animate nouns, the accusative plural is the same as the genitive plural.

Cases for друг:

Nominative plural: друзья (who? what?)
Genitive plural: друзей (of whom?)
Accusative plural (whom?): друзей

Because заводить is a transitive verb and takes a direct object:

(to make) кого? что? – friends → друзей

So:

заводить друзей – to make friends
✗ заводить друзья – incorrect case

Why is it в парке and not на парке or some other preposition?

For being in a park as a physical space, Russian uses в + prepositional case:

в парке – in the park

Compare:

в доме – in the house
в школе – at school / in the school
в магазине – in the store

На is used with some open areas and institutions (на улице, на стадионе, на почте), but for парк the normal, neutral choice is в парке.

Forms:

Nominative: парк
Prepositional: в парке (in the park)

Can I change the word order? For example: В парке мне легко заводить друзей?

Yes, Russian word order is flexible, and all of these are grammatical, with slightly different emphasis:

Мне легко заводить друзей в парке.
Neutral, focus on the general fact that it’s easy for you.
В парке мне легко заводить друзей.
Emphasizes the location: In the park it’s easy for me (maybe in other places it’s not).
Заводить друзей в парке мне легко.
Emphasizes the ease of that specific activity in contrast to something else.

Semantically they’re the same; the difference is subtle, mostly in which part is highlighted.

How would I say “It’s not easy for me to make friends in the park”?

Two common options:

Мне нелегко заводить друзей в парке.
- нелегко written as one word = “not easy / difficult”.
  This sounds quite natural and idiomatic.
Мне не легко заводить друзей в парке.
- Here не and легко are separate; often used when contrasting:
  Мне не легко заводить друзей в парке, но я стараюсь.
  – It’s not easy for me to make friends in the park, but I try.

You can also use трудно:

Мне трудно заводить друзей в парке. – It’s hard for me to make friends in the park.

Is there a difference between Мне легко заводить друзей and Я легко завожу друзей?

Yes, there is a nuance:

Мне легко заводить друзей.
- Impersonal construction.
- Focus: the subjective ease of this action for you.
- Often about how it feels – not much effort.
Я легко завожу друзей.
- Personal verb form.
- Focus: you as an active subject doing this easily, as a skill or characteristic.
- Sounds like “I easily / readily make friends,” almost like claiming a talent.

Both are correct; the original sentence is a bit more about your experience of difficulty, not about boasting a skill.

Could I say Мне легко знакомиться с людьми в парке instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can, and it’s very natural.

заводить друзей – to make friends (implies you end up with actual friends, not just contacts).
знакомиться с людьми – to get acquainted with people, to meet people (initial stage, not yet real friends).

So:

Мне легко заводить друзей в парке. – I (tend to) turn people into friends easily.
Мне легко знакомиться с людьми в парке. – It’s easy for me to start talking / get acquainted with people in the park.

Which one you choose depends on whether you want to stress casual acquaintance or real friendship.

How does легко differ from просто in a sentence like this?

Both can sometimes be translated as “easy,” but they’re not identical.

легко – focuses on the degree of effort / difficulty.
- Мне легко заводить друзей. – It doesn’t require much effort for me.
просто – literally “simply,” can mean simple / straightforward / no complications.
- Мне просто заводить друзей. – It’s simple for me to make friends / not complicated.

Often they overlap, but легко is more about effort, просто about simplicity of process or absence of complications. In your sentence легко is the more standard choice.

How should I pronounce the stressed syllables in this sentence?

Stresses:

Мне – one syllable, stress on е.
легко́ – stress on -ко́ (le-gKO).
заводи́ть – stress on -ди́ть (za-vo-DIT’).
друзеи́̆ (spelled друзей) – stress on -зе́й (dru-ZYEY).
в па́рке – stress on па́ (VAR-ke).

So together:
Мне легко́ заводи́ть друзеи́̆ в па́рке.