Learn Hardcore Russian: Некоторые друзья любят тихий парк.

Некоторые друзья – some (unspecified) friends. Very general.
Некоторые из друзей – some of (my/our/the) friends. This clearly refers to a specific group that is already known from context.
Некоторые мои друзья – some of my friends. It explicitly adds “my”.

In isolation, некоторые друзья sounds like we’re talking about friends in a more abstract way, or about “some friends” of the speaker/listener, but not very precisely defined. If the context is about your personal circle, некоторые мои друзья or некоторые из моих друзей is more typical and natural.

What case is тихий парк, and why does it look the same as the dictionary form?

The dictionary (nominative singular) form is:

тихий парк – quiet park (masculine singular, nominative).

In the sentence Некоторые друзья любят тихий парк, тихий парк is in the accusative case, because it is the direct object of the verb любят (“they love”).

For inanimate masculine nouns in Russian:

Nominative = Accusative in form.

So:

Nominative: тихий парк (subject) – Тихий парк красивый. (“The quiet park is beautiful.”)
Accusative: тихий парк (object) – Мы любим тихий парк. (“We love the quiet park.”)

They look identical, but the function is different. You know it’s accusative here because любить (“to love”) always takes a direct object in the accusative.

Why is the adjective тихий and not something like тихой or тихого?

Adjectives in Russian must agree with the noun in:

Gender
Number
Case

Парк is:

masculine
singular
inanimate
accusative (as direct object of любят)

For masculine inanimate singular nouns in the accusative, the adjective ending is the same as for nominative masculine: -ый / -ий.

So:

Nominative: тихий парк – a quiet park (subject)
Accusative: тихий парк – a quiet park (object)

Forms like тихого or тихой would be for other cases:

тихого парка – genitive or accusative (if animate)
тихой парке – prepositional (in/at a quiet park)

Why is the direct object парк in the accusative, not another case?

The verb любить (“to love, to like”) is a transitive verb, and in Russian transitive verbs normally take their direct object in the accusative case.

Pattern:

Кто? Что? (Who? What?) → direct object → accusative

So:

Кто любит? – Некоторые друзья (subject, nominative)
Что любят? – тихий парк (object, accusative)

That is why парк is in the accusative (even though it looks like nominative).

Why is the plural of друг “друзья” and not something like “други”?

Друг → друзья is an irregular plural in Russian.

You can’t form the plural by just adding the usual -ы / -и ending. Instead:

Singular: друг – friend
Plural: друзья – friends

This is similar to irregular plurals in English like “man → men” or “child → children.”
You just have to memorize друг → друзья as a special case.

Can I change the word order, for example: Тихий парк любят некоторые друзья? Does the meaning change?

Yes, Russian word order is more flexible than English. All these are grammatically possible:

Некоторые друзья любят тихий парк.
– Neutral, basic order: Some friends like the quiet park.
Тихий парк любят некоторые друзья.
– Emphasis on тихий парк (“the quiet park” is what is loved), then specifying who loves it.
Тихий парк некоторые друзья любят.
– Strong focus on the verb любят or on contrast (some do, others don’t), and also on тихий парк as the object.

The core meaning (“some friends love a/the quiet park”) stays the same, but the focus/emphasis shifts depending on word order. The most neutral, textbook-like version is the original: Некоторые друзья любят тихий парк.

How do you say “some friends like the quiet park” vs “some friends like a quiet park” if Russian has no articles?

Russian doesn’t have articles (no equivalent of “a / an / the”), so тихий парк can mean:

“a quiet park”
“the quiet park”

Which meaning is intended is determined only by context, not by grammar.

For example:

If you have already been talking about one particular park, тихий парк will naturally be understood as “the quiet park”.
If you are speaking more generally, without a specific park in mind, it will sound like “a quiet park”.

Sometimes Russians add words for clarity, e.g.

тот тихий парк – that quiet park (more like “the”)
какой-нибудь тихий парк – some quiet park (any one)

What is the nuance of некоторые compared to какие-то?

Both can be translated as “some”, but they feel different:

некоторые друзья
– neutral “some friends” (a certain subset of friends).
– Often sounds a bit more objective or descriptive.
какие-то друзья
– literally “some kind of friends” / “some friends or other,” often with a shade of vagueness, uncertainty, or slight dismissal.
– Can sound like: “I don’t really know or care exactly which friends.”

In your sentence, Некоторые друзья любят тихий парк is neutral: “Some friends like the quiet park.”
Какие-то друзья любят тихий парк could sound more like: “Some (random / I-don’t-know-which) friends like the quiet park.”

What’s the difference between любить and полюбить in a sentence like this?

любить – to love, to like (a general, ongoing state or attitude).
- Некоторые друзья любят тихий парк.
  → Some friends (generally) like the quiet park.
полюбить – to come to love, to grow to love (a change of state, usually completed).
- Некоторые друзья полюбили тихий парк.
  → Some friends came to love / have grown to love the quiet park (they didn’t before, but now they do).

So любят here describes a habitual or stable preference, not the moment when that feeling appeared.

Where is the stress in некоторые друзья любят тихий парк, and are there any tricky pronunciations?

Stresses:

нЕкоторые – НЕ-ko-to-rye (stress on the first syllable)
друзьЯ – dru-ЗЬЯ
лЮбят – ЛЮ-byat
тИхий – ТИ-khiy
парк – one syllable

Tricky points for English speakers:

The -ые in некоторые is pronounced approximately like -ые → “ые” [ɨje], but very reduced; it’s not two full syllables like “-oo-yeh.”
The ль in любят is a soft л, closer to the “lli” in “million.”
друзья has soft з and я, pronounced around “dru-z’YA.”

Could I just say Друзья любят тихий парк without некоторые? How would that change the meaning?

Yes, you can, but the meaning changes:

Некоторые друзья любят тихий парк.
→ Some (not all) friends like the quiet park.
Друзья любят тихий парк.
→ (The) friends like the quiet park.
This sounds like you’re talking about the friends as a group, without highlighting that only some of them do.

So некоторые is important here to convey the idea of “not all of them, only some.”