Breakdown of Мой друг сел в лодку, и его куртка сразу стала мокрой.
Questions & Answers about Мой друг сел в лодку, и его куртка сразу стала мокрой.
Russian distinguishes between:
- сесть → сел: to sit down, to take a seat, to get into a vehicle/boat (a change of position)
- сидеть → сидел: to be sitting (a state)
In the sentence, the important idea is that your friend got into the boat / sat down in the boat (a completed action), not that he was already sitting there.
So сел в лодку = got into the boat / sat down in the boat, while сидел в лодке would mean was sitting in the boat (describing his state after he got in).
With в, Russian uses:
- Accusative (here: лодку) for movement into something:
- в лодку – into the boat
- в дом – into the house
- Prepositional (here: в лодке) for location in something:
- в лодке – in the boat
- в доме – in the house
Since сел here means “got in / sat down into,” it describes motion into the boat, so you need в лодку (accusative), not в лодке.
Both can be correct, but they have different images:
- в лодку (literally “into the boat”):
- You imagine a smallish boat with an inside space.
- You end up inside / in the boat.
- на лодку (literally “onto the boat”):
- You imagine the boat more like a surface or a deck (often bigger vessels, but context matters).
- You end up on top of or on board.
For a small rowboat or inflatable boat, в лодку is the usual, neutral choice.
In Russian, you normally put a comma before и when it joins two independent clauses (two separate “mini‑sentences” with their own subjects and verbs):
- Мой друг сел в лодку – clause 1
- его куртка сразу стала мокрой – clause 2
Each has its own subject (друг, куртка) and verb (сел, стала), so Russian orthographic rules require the comma:
Мой друг сел в лодку, и его куртка сразу стала мокрой.
You would not use a comma if и just connects two similar parts inside one clause (for example, two verbs with the same subject):
- Мой друг сел в лодку и взял весло. (one subject, two verbs)
Both are grammatically possible, but they differ in nuance:
- его куртка – his jacket (could be:
- the friend’s jacket, or
- another man’s jacket, depending on context)
- своя куртка – his own jacket (must belong to the subject of that clause)
Here the subject of the second clause is его куртка itself (the jacket), so to use своя, the subject would need to be the friend:
- Мой друг сел в лодку, и его куртка сразу стала мокрой.
Neutral, default phrasing. - Мой друг сел в лодку, и его своя куртка... – wrong; своя can’t work here.
- To use своя, you’d restructure:
- Мой друг сел в лодку, и у него сразу намокла своя куртка.
So in the original structure, его куртка is the natural choice.
The possessive его is indeclinable:
- same form for masculine, feminine, neuter, and plural owners:
- его брат – his brother
- его сестра – his sister
- его пальто – his coat
- его друзья – his friends
It also stays его in all cases (nominative, genitive, etc.) when it is possessive.
That’s why you say его куртка (his jacket) regardless of the gender of куртка and regardless of the case.
The verb choice changes the meaning:
- стала мокрой – became wet, got wet
Focus on the change of state. - была мокрой – was wet
Describes a state, without emphasizing the moment of change.
In the sentence, the idea is that at the moment he sat in the boat, the jacket became wet, so стала мокрой is more precise than была мокрой.
In Russian, past‑tense verbs agree with the gender and number of the subject.
The subject of the second clause is куртка:
- куртка – feminine noun (ending in -а)
- Feminine past of стать (perfective) is стала
So:
- куртка стала мокрой – correct
- куртка стал мокрой – wrong (masculine form with feminine noun)
Two things are going on:
Case after “стать”
The verb стать (“to become”) normally takes the instrumental case for professions, roles, and qualities:- стать врачом – become a doctor
- стать красивым – become beautiful (masc.)
- стала мокрой – became wet (fem.)
Мокрой here is feminine singular instrumental of мокрый.
Contrast with nominative:
- мокрая куртка – a wet jacket (adjective in nominative, agreeing with the noun)
- куртка стала мокрой – the jacket became wet (adjective in instrumental, after стать)
So мокрой (instrumental) is required by стать; мокрая (nominative) would be ungrammatical in this position.
Yes, you can, and it sounds very natural:
- его куртка сразу намокла – his jacket immediately got wet.
Differences:
- стала мокрой – literally “became wet,” somewhat more descriptive; uses стать + adjective.
- намокла – perfective verb намокнуть, also “to get wet / to become wet,” slightly more compact and colloquial.
In many contexts they are interchangeable. In this exact sentence, стала мокрой and намокла both work.
Сразу means “immediately, right away.” Here it emphasizes that the jacket got wet as soon as he sat in the boat.
- сразу – very common, neutral.
- сразу же – often a bit more emphatic, like “right away, immediately,” sometimes with a slight emotional coloring.
In your sentence:
- его куртка сразу стала мокрой
- его куртка сразу же стала мокрой
Both are correct; сразу же just sounds a bit stronger or more expressive.
Yes, Russian word order is more flexible than English. You can say:
- Мой друг сел в лодку – neutral, straightforward.
- В лодку сел мой друг – also correct, but with a slight shift of focus:
- Often used when you first mention the boat or contrast who sat in the boat (e.g., not someone else, but my friend).
The core meaning remains the same; the change mainly affects emphasis and style, not grammar. The original order is the most neutral for a simple statement.