Learn Hardcore Russian: Младшая дочь прячется за кустом и смеётся, когда я иду по тропе и делаю вид, что не вижу её. - The younger daughter hides behind a bush and laughs when I walk along the path pretending not to see her.

Младшая means younger / youngest. It’s the feminine, singular, nominative form of the adjective младший (irregular comparative of малый “small”).

дочь is feminine and is the subject of the sentence → nominative case.
The adjective must agree with дочь in gender, number, and case → младшая дочь.

Depending on context, младшая дочь can mean either “the younger daughter” (if there are two) or “the youngest daughter” (if there are more than two). Russian often uses младший / старший this way instead of a separate “youngest/oldest” form.

Why is прячется reflexive? What is the difference between прячется and прячет?

Прячется comes from прятаться (“to hide oneself”), a reflexive verb. The -ся / -сь ending often means the action is done to oneself.

она прячется = “she is hiding (herself)”
она прячет куклу = “she hides the doll”

So:

прятать = to hide something/someone else (transitive)
прятаться = to hide oneself (intransitive, reflexive)

In this sentence, the daughter is hiding herself, so Russian must use прячется, not прячет.

Why is it за кустом and not за куст?

The preposition за can take two different cases with different meanings:

за
- accusative (за куст) → motion to a place: “to (go) behind the bush” (куда?)
за
- instrumental (за кустом) → location: “(to be) behind the bush” (где?)

Here, the daughter is already positioned behind the bush, so Russian uses the instrumental: за кустом – “behind the bush.”

What is going on with смеётся? Why is ё used, and how is it pronounced?

Смеётся is the 3rd person singular of смеяться (“to laugh”).

The ё letter represents the sound “yo” (stressed ё is always pronounced yo).
смеётся is pronounced roughly like “smye-YOT-sya.”

In many printed texts, ё is written as е, so you might see смеется, but it’s still pronounced смеётся. In teaching materials, ё is usually written explicitly to help learners with stress and pronunciation.

Why is there a comma before когда in … смеётся, когда я иду по тропе …?

Когда introduces a subordinate clause (“when I walk along the path…”). Russian normally separates a main clause and a subordinate clause with a comma:

Main clause: (Она) прячется за кустом и смеётся
Subordinate clause: когда я иду по тропе и делаю вид, что не вижу её

So you must write: … смеётся, когда я иду ….
This is a standard rule with conjunctions like когда, потому что, если, что etc.

What is the difference between иду and хожу, and why is иду used here?

Both come from verbs meaning “to go on foot”:

идти (я иду) – one-direction, a specific movement happening now or in one direction.
ходить (я хожу) – multi-direction, habitual, repeated, or “there and back” movement.

In this sentence, the narrator is describing a particular walk along the path at that moment (in the scene), so иду is natural:
… когда я иду по тропе … = “when I am walking along the path (now / in this situation).”

If you said когда я хожу по тропе, it would sound more like “when I walk along the path (in general, habitually).”

Why is it по тропе? Which case is used after по, and what does it mean here?

Here по means “along / on” and is followed by the dative case:

тропа (nominative)
по тропе (dative singular)

So по тропе = “along the path / on the path.”

Russian по is tricky because it can take different cases and mean different things, but for “moving along a surface or line” (по дороге, по улице, по тропе), it regularly takes the dative.

What does the expression делаю вид mean, literally and idiomatically?

Literally, делаю вид is “I make an appearance/look.”
Idiomatic meaning: “I pretend / I act as if / I give the impression.”

So делать вид, что… = “to pretend that…”

In the sentence:
… и делаю вид, что не вижу её
= “and I pretend not to see her / and I act as if I don’t see her.”

It’s a very common, fixed expression in Russian.

In делаю вид, что не вижу её, why do we use что, and why is вижу in the present tense?

Что introduces a content clause (an object clause) explaining what appearance is being made:

делать вид, что… = “to pretend that…”

So … что не вижу её = “that I don’t see her.”

The verb вижу is in the present tense because it describes an action simultaneous with делаю вид (“I pretend”) — both are happening at the same time in the scene.

Russian does not use a special “sequence of tenses” like English; it just chooses the real time of the action. Present here matches the English “I pretend I don’t see her.”

Why is the pronoun её at the end: не вижу её, instead of её не вижу?

Russian word order is flexible, but:

не вижу её is the neutral, most typical order here.
её не вижу would put emphasis on её: “I don’t see her (as opposed to someone else / something else).”

In this context, the pronoun is not being contrasted with anything, so the neutral не вижу её is more natural. Both versions are grammatically correct; the difference is in emphasis and tone, not grammar.

Could we say что я её не вижу instead of что не вижу её? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say both:

что не вижу её
что я её не вижу

Both are grammatically correct and mean “that I don’t see her.”

Differences:

Russian often drops the subject pronoun я when the subject is obvious from the verb ending. не вижу already implies “I don’t see.”
Adding я can make the subject slightly more explicit or emphatic: что я её не вижу can sound a bit heavier, slightly more contrastive (“that I don’t see her”).

In this relaxed narrative sentence, the shorter что не вижу её sounds more natural and fluid.

Why is дочь in the nominative case here?

Дочь is the grammatical subject of the sentence: she is the one who hides and laughs. Subjects in Russian appear in the nominative case.

So:

Кто прячется и смеётся? – младшая дочь.
Because it answers кто? (“who?”), it must be nominative дочь, not any other case.

Why is there no comma before и смеётся or before и делаю вид?

Russian doesn’t put a comma between two verbs that share the same subject and form a simple compound predicate:

Младшая дочь прячется за кустом и смеётся – one subject (младшая дочь) with two actions. No comma.
… когда я иду по тропе и делаю вид … – one subject (я) with two actions. No comma.

You only put a comma before и when it connects separate clauses (each with its own subject/verb group) or separates items in a longer list where commas are needed for clarity. In this sentence, и just links two verbs with the same subject, so no comma is used.

Could we use спрячется or спряталась instead of прячется? How would that change the meaning?

Yes, but the meaning and focus change:

прячется (imperfective, present) – “(she) is hiding / hides”
- Describes an ongoing action or a typical scene. That’s what we have now.
спрячется за кустом (perfective future) – “will hide behind the bush”
- Focus on the result in the future: she will get herself hidden there.
спряталась за кустом (perfective past) – “(she) hid / has hidden behind the bush”
- Focus on the completed action in the past; she is now already hidden.

The original sentence is painting a present-time or habitual “scene,” so the imperfective прячется fits best.

How does Russian express “is hiding / is walking / is laughing” without a special progressive tense?

Russian has only one present tense form for most verbs. It covers both:

simple present: “she hides, she walks, she laughs”
present progressive: “she is hiding, she is walking, she is laughing”

Context tells you which one to choose in English.

Here, the sentence describes a vivid scene, so English naturally uses the progressive:

прячется → “is hiding”
смеётся → “is laughing”
иду → “am walking”

But in Russian, using the ordinary present already carries that idea; no extra form is needed.