Questions & Answers about Моя дочка играет в парке.
In Russian, possessive adjectives like мой / моя / моё / мои must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they describe.
- дочка (daughter) is a feminine noun.
- The feminine form of мой (my) in the nominative case is моя.
So:
- мой сын – my son (masculine)
- моя дочка – my daughter (feminine)
- моё окно – my window (neuter)
- мои дети – my children (plural)
That’s why we say моя дочка, not мой дочка.
Both mean daughter, but there is a nuance:
- дочь – the basic, slightly more formal word: daughter
- дочка – a diminutive and more affectionate form: little daughter, dear daughter
In conversation, дочка is very common and sounds warm and familiar.
For example, a mother is more likely to say:
- Моя дочка играет в парке.
rather than - Моя дочь играет в парке.
But дочь is more common in official or neutral contexts:
- У меня есть дочь. – I have a daughter.
- In documents: дочь Иванова – Ivanov’s daughter.
The infinitive is играть – to play.
играет is:
- 3rd person
- singular
- present tense
- imperfective aspect
So it literally means he/she/it plays or he/she/it is playing, depending on context.
Basic conjugation of играть in the present tense:
- я играю – I play / I am playing
- ты играешь – you play (sing., informal)
- он / она / оно играет – he / she / it plays
- мы играем – we play
- вы играете – you play (pl. or formal)
- они играют – they play
Russian does not have a special present continuous tense like English (is playing, are playing). The simple present in Russian covers both:
- habitual action
- action happening right now
So Моя дочка играет в парке can mean:
- My daughter plays in the park (in general, as a habit)
- My daughter is playing in the park (right now)
The exact meaning is decided by context, not by verb form.
The choice depends on whether you mean:
- location (where?) – use в
- prepositional case
- movement into (where to?) – use в
- accusative case
In this sentence, the meaning is where she is playing (location), so:
- в парке – in the park (prepositional case, answers где? – where?)
If you talk about movement to the park, you say:
- Она идёт в парк. – She is going to the park. (accusative case, answers куда? – where to?)
The base (dictionary) form is парк – park (nominative singular).
In в парке, the noun is in the prepositional case, which commonly answers где? (where?) when used with в or на.
For many masculine nouns ending in a consonant:
- Nominative: парк
- Prepositional (singular): в парке
Other examples:
- стол → на столе – on the table
- город → в городе – in the city
- лес → в лесу – in the forest (this one is irregular)
All of these are grammatically correct; Russian word order is flexible:
- Моя дочка играет в парке. – neutral, basic order (subject–verb–place).
- Моя дочка в парке играет. – emphasizes играет (that she is playing there, not doing something else).
- В парке играет моя дочка. – emphasizes в парке or моя дочка depending on context, often used to highlight where or who.
The core meaning is the same: your daughter is playing in the park. The different orders shift emphasis, not basic meaning.
Russian usually omits “to be” in the present tense when linking a subject to a predicate.
English:
- My daughter is playing in the park.
Russian:
- Моя дочка играет в парке. (literally: My daughter plays in the park)
There is no direct “is” equivalent.
For continuous or present actions, Russian simply uses the present tense of the main verb:
- Она читает. – She is reading / She reads.
- Он спит. – He is sleeping / He sleeps.
You need the plural forms of both дочка and играет:
- Мои дочки играют в парке.
Changes:
- моя → мои (my, plural)
- дочка → дочки (daughters)
- играет → играют (3rd person plural of играть)
Add не before the verb:
- Моя дочка не играет в парке. – My daughter is not playing in the park / My daughter does not play in the park.
Pattern:
subject + не + verb + rest of the sentence
Examples:
- Он не работает. – He does not work.
- Мы не живём в Москве. – We do not live in Moscow.
Approximate pronunciation (Latin letters):
ma-YA DOCH-ka ee-GRA-yet f PAR-ke
Details:
- моя – ma-YA (stress on я)
- дочка – DOCH-ka
- чк is pronounced clearly as [chk], not shk.
- играет – ee-GRA-yet (stress on ра: играет)
- в парке – f PAR-ke
- The final в before a consonant can sound like f.
- парке – stress on а: пАрке.
The imperfective играть focuses on process / duration / repetition: to play, be playing.
Common perfective partners:
- поиграть – to play for a while, to spend some time playing
- (less used here, but possible in some contexts) сыграть – to finish playing something (a game, a role, a piece of music, etc.)
Examples:
- Моя дочка играет в парке. – My daughter is playing / plays in the park. (no focus on result)
- Моя дочка поиграет в парке и придёт домой. – My daughter will play in the park for a while and then come home. (limited duration, future)
- Она сыграла в парке с друзьями. – She played (finished a game) in the park with friends. (completed event)
No. With парк, the correct preposition for in/at the park is в, not на:
- в парке – in the park / at the park (both meanings are covered)
The preposition на is used with some specific places (fields, surfaces, events):
- на улице – in the street / outside
- на стадионе – at the stadium
- на пляже – on the beach
- на концерте – at the concert
But for парк, Russian uses в парке, not на парке.