Мама купила печенье в виде сердца.

Mom bought cookies in the shape of a heart.

Breakdown of Мама купила печенье в виде сердца.

• купить: to buy
• мама: the mother
• сердце: the heart
• печенье: the cookie
• в виде: in the shape of

Questions & Answers about Мама купила печенье в виде сердца.

Why does мама by itself mean my mom here? Where is моя?

Russian often omits possessive pronouns (мой, моя, моё, мои) with close family members when it is obvious whose family member is meant.

So:

• Мама купила печенье.
  = Mom bought cookies / My mom bought cookies.

It usually refers to the speaker’s mother unless context clearly says otherwise.
If you add моя (Моя мама купила…), it sounds a bit more emphatic or contrastive: My mom (not someone else’s) bought… but it’s not required for the basic meaning.

What does the verb купила tell us about tense, aspect, and gender?

Купила is:

• Past tense
• Singular
• Feminine
• Perfective

From the verb pair:

• покупать – to buy (imperfective)
• купить – to buy (perfective)

Past-tense endings:

• masculine: купил
• feminine: купила
• neuter: купило
• plural: купили

Because the subject мама is feminine, the verb must be купила.
Perfective past (купила) usually describes a completed, one-time action: she bought it (and it’s done).

What is the difference between купила and покупала in this kind of sentence?

• Мама купила печенье в виде сердца.
  Perfective: a single, completed purchase. The focus is on the result: She bought it (and now we have it).

• Мама покупала печенье в виде сердца.
  Imperfective: describes a repeated / habitual action, or the process in the past:

  • She used to buy heart-shaped cookies.
  • She was buying heart-shaped cookies (when something else happened).

In your sentence, we mean one specific completed action, so купила is the natural choice.

What grammatical case is печенье in, and why doesn’t it change form?

Печенье is the direct object of the verb купила, so it is in the accusative case.

For inanimate neuter nouns ending in -е, the nominative and accusative singular are identical:

• Nominative sg: печенье – (the) cookie(s)
• Accusative sg: печенье – (bought) cookie(s)

So the form stays печенье; the case is shown only by its role in the sentence, not by a visible ending change here.

Why is it печенье (singular) when English usually says cookies (plural)?

Печенье in Russian is often a mass / collective noun:

• печенье can mean:
  • a cookie (in general, type of thing)
  • cookies (some amount of them)
  • cookie(s) as a mass, like bread or candy in English

So:

• Мама купила печенье.
  can be translated as:
  • Mom bought some cookies.
  • Mom bought cookies.

If you really want to emphasize distinct individual pieces, you can use plural forms like:

• печенья (plural, more neutral/literary)
• печеньки (colloquial, “little cookies”)

But печенье is the most common everyday way to say “cookies” in general.

What exactly does the phrase в виде mean, and how is it used?

В виде literally means “in the form of / in the shape of / in the form of something”.

Grammatically:

• в виде
  • genitive case

Examples:

• печенье в виде сердца – cookies in the shape of a heart
• дом в виде корабля – a house in the shape of a ship
• сметана в виде соуса – sour cream in the form of a sauce

In your sentence, в виде tells us that the shape of the cookies is like a heart.

Why is it сердца and not сердце or сердцем?

Because of the phrase в виде, which requires the genitive case.

The noun сердце (heart) declines like this in the singular:

• Nominative: сердце – a heart
• Genitive: сердца – of a heart
• Dative: сердцу
• Accusative: сердце
• Instrumental: сердцем
• Prepositional: о сердце

After в виде, we need the genitive, so we use:

• в виде сердца – “in the form/shape of a heart”

Сердцем would be instrumental (“with/by heart”) and is not used after в виде.

If there are many cookies, should сердца become plural too?

No. Even if there are many cookies, each cookie still has the shape of a (single) heart, so the most natural form is still genitive singular:

• Мама купила печенье в виде сердца.
  = Mom bought (many) cookies in the shape of a heart.

If you talk about many different heart shapes (rare here), you might use plural genitive сердец, but for ordinary “heart-shaped cookies”, в виде сердца stays singular.

Can I say в форме сердца instead of в виде сердца? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say:

• Мама купила печенье в форме сердца.

В форме also means “in the shape/form of” and is very natural with shapes.

Nuance:

• в виде – slightly more general, can be “in the form of / in the guise of / in the form of (as a type of)”
• в форме – focuses more literally on physical shape/form

For cookies, both are used a lot, and in everyday speech they are practically interchangeable here.

Could Russian use an adjective like “heart-shaped” instead of в виде сердца?

Yes, there are adjective-like or compound options, though печенье в виде сердца / в форме сердца is probably the most straightforward.

Possible alternatives:

• печенье-сердечко – “little-heart cookies”, often used in ads, menus, etc.
• сердечное печенье – literally “heart(-ish) cookie”, but this can also mean “cordial, affectionate” and may sound a bit poetic or ambiguous.

For clear, neutral description of shape, печенье в виде сердца (or в форме сердца) is the most standard and unambiguous.

How flexible is the word order? Can the parts of the sentence move around?

Russian word order is more flexible than English, but not all rearrangements sound natural.

Your sentence:

• Мама купила печенье в виде сердца. – neutral, standard.

Other possibilities:

• Мама купила в виде сердца печенье. – possible, but sounds awkward; в виде сердца strongly wants to stay next to печенье, and it normally follows it.
• Печенье в виде сердца мама купила. – puts emphasis on the heart-shaped cookies; this is possible in spoken or emotional contexts.
• Купила мама печенье в виде сердца. – possible, with a slight emphasis on купила (often storytelling style).

Generally, keep в виде сердца directly after печенье, because it describes that noun.