Learn Hardcore Russian: Моя подруга говорит, что солёные блюда лучше есть реже, а кислые помогают просыпаться. - My friend female says that salty dishes are better eaten rarely, and sour ones help you wake up.

подруга = a female friend. It clearly marks the friend as female and usually implies a non-romantic friend (unless context suggests otherwise).
друг = a (usually male) friend, but in modern colloquial speech can sometimes be used generically. Still, if you say мой друг, most listeners imagine a male friend.
девушка can mean:
- “young woman / girl” in general, or
- “girlfriend” (romantic partner), depending on context.

In this sentence, моя подруга unambiguously means “my (female) friend”, not “my girlfriend” (though in some contexts it can be used that way, it’s less typical than моя девушка for “my girlfriend”).

Why do we use говорит, что … instead of just saying the statement after говорит?

Russian commonly uses говорить, что … to introduce reported speech, similar to English “says that …”.

Моя подруга говорит, что солёные блюда лучше есть реже…
= “My friend says (that) it’s better to eat salty dishes less often…”

You could quote her directly with говорит: «…»:

Моя подруга говорит: «Солёные блюда лучше есть реже…»

But with что, you’re paraphrasing her idea instead of giving her exact words. The comma before что is required in Russian to separate the main clause (Моя подруга говорит) from the subordinate clause (что солёные блюда…).

What exactly is going on grammatically in солёные блюда?

солёные блюда literally means “salty dishes”:

блюдо = “dish” (as in a type of food), neuter, singular.
блюда = plural nominative (“dishes”).
солёный = “salty” (full adjective form).
солёные = its plural nominative form.

The adjective agrees with the noun in gender/number/case:

Singular: солёное блюдо
Plural: солёные блюда

So the whole phrase солёные блюда is plural, nominative, and acts as the subject of лучше есть (“it is better to eat salty dishes …” – literally “salty dishes [are] better to be eaten …”).

Why do we have only кислые without a noun after it?

This is a common Russian ellipsis: the noun is understood from context and omitted.

Earlier we had солёные блюда (“salty dishes”). Then:

а кислые помогают просыпаться.

Here кислые means кислые блюда (“sour dishes” / “sour foods”). Repeating блюда is not necessary, so it’s dropped.

Russian frequently uses adjectives as substantivized adjectives (functioning like nouns) when the noun is clear:

бедные (people) – “the poor”
богатые (people) – “the rich”
кислые (блюда) – sour dishes

What is the role of а in …реже, а кислые помогают просыпаться? Could we use и instead?

а contrasts two statements, roughly like “while”, “whereas”, or “but” in English.

солёные блюда лучше есть реже, а кислые помогают просыпаться.
≈ “Salty dishes are better eaten less often, whereas sour ones help you wake up.”

If you use и (“and”), you’re just adding information without highlighting contrast:

…реже, и кислые помогают просыпаться.
sounds more like “Salty dishes are better eaten less often, and sour ones help you wake up too.”

Both can be grammatically correct, but а emphasizes the difference between salty and sour dishes.

How should I understand the structure лучше есть реже? Why this order?

Literally, солёные блюда лучше есть реже is something like:

“Salty dishes [it is] better to eat more rarely.”

Structure:

солёные блюда – subject
лучше – comparative adverb “better”
есть – infinitive “to eat”
реже – comparative adverb “more rarely / less often”

Natural English would be: “it’s better to eat salty dishes less often.”

Word order in Russian is flexible. You could also say:

Солёные блюда лучше реже есть. (also OK, slightly different emphasis)

The original order лучше есть реже is very natural and clear: “better (to) eat (them) rarely.”

What exactly does реже mean here, and what is it formed from?

реже is the comparative form of the adverb редко (“rarely, seldom”).

редко – rarely
реже – more rarely / less often

So есть реже = “to eat (something) less often / more rarely.”

It does not mean “eat less (in quantity)” – that would be есть меньше (“eat less” in amount).
Here it’s about frequency, not portion size.

Why do we use есть and not кушать for “to eat”?

Both есть and кушать mean “to eat”, but they differ in style and usage:

есть – the neutral, standard verb for “to eat”. Used in all kinds of contexts: casual, formal, written.
кушать – originally more child-directed or polite (like “to have a bite”, “to eat (nicely)”). In adult speech it can sound:
- polite in service contexts (waiter, doctor), or
- childish / overly sweet, depending on context.

In general rules or recommendations about food, Russian strongly prefers есть:

Солёные блюда лучше есть реже. – completely natural.
Солёные блюда лучше кушать реже. – sounds off or childish.

Why is it кислые помогают просыпаться and not something like кислые блюда помогают мне просыпаться?

The full, explicit version could be:

Кислые блюда помогают мне просыпаться. – “Sour dishes help me wake up.”

In the original sentence, two things are omitted because they are understood:

блюда after кислые (we already discussed that).
A dative person: мне (“to me”).

помогать can be used in two ways:

помогать кому-то делать что-то
– “to help someone do something”
e.g. Кислые блюда помогают мне просыпаться.
помогать делать что-то (impersonal, more general)
– “to help (in) doing something”
e.g. Кислые блюда помогают просыпаться.

The second pattern is used here: a general statement that sour foods “help (one) wake up”, without specifying who exactly.

What does просыпаться mean, and how is it different from проснуться?

Both verbs mean “to wake up”, but they differ in aspect:

просыпаться – imperfective, “to wake up” as a process or repeated action:
- Я обычно просыпаюсь в семь. – I usually wake up at seven.
- кислые помогают просыпаться – sour (foods) help (you) wake up (in general).
проснуться – perfective, “to wake up” as a completed event:
- Я проснулся в семь. – I woke up at seven (completed, specific occasion).

In constructions like “help (to) wake up” in general, Russian prefers the imperfective infinitive просыпаться.

Why is просыпаться reflexive (with -ся)?

The suffix -ся (or -сь after vowels) often marks verbs that are:

reflexive (“do something to oneself”), or
have a meaning close to a middle voice.

просыпаться literally is “to wake oneself (up)” – “to wake up”. This is an intransitive action that happens to the subject.

Compare:

будить кого-то – to wake someone up
Мама будит меня. – Mom wakes me up.
просыпаться – to wake up (oneself)
Я просыпаюсь. – I wake up.

So reflexive -ся is necessary in просыпаться; просыпать without -ся means something else (“to spill” or “to oversleep” in some forms).

Why is the verb помогают plural here?

In а кислые помогают просыпаться, the (understood) subject is кислые (блюда) – plural:

кислые блюда – sour dishes
So the verb must agree in number: они помогают → помогают.

If the subject were singular, the verb would be singular:

Кислое блюдо помогает просыпаться. – A sour dish helps you wake up.

So помогают is plural to agree with кислые (блюда).