Learn Hardcore Russian: Моя подруга хочет поступить в университет. - My female friend wants to enroll in the university.

подруга is a feminine noun (ends in -а and means “(female) friend”).
The feminine form of “my” is моя.
The masculine form “my” is мой, used with masculine nouns (e.g., мой друг “my (male) friend”).

So you must say моя подруга, not мой подруга.

What’s the difference between подруга and друг? Does подруга always mean “girlfriend” (romantic)?

друг = “friend” (grammatically masculine). It usually refers to a male friend, but can also be used generically in some contexts.
подруга = “female friend.” It’s the normal, neutral word for a female friend.

Whether подруга means “(female) friend” or “girlfriend” depends on context, not on the word itself:

Моя подруга can mean:
- just “my (female) friend” (most common reading),
- or “my girlfriend” in the right context (e.g., when talking about your romantic partner).

If you want to be unambiguously romantic, people often say девушка (my girlfriend) or use other clarifying phrases.

Why is it хочет поступить, not something like хочет поступает?

In Russian, when you say someone “wants to do” something, you use:

хотеть (conjugated) + infinitive (the base form of the second verb)

So:

хочет поступить = “(she) wants to enter”
хочет читать = “(she) wants to read”
хочет поехать = “(she) wants to go (by transport)”

You cannot follow хочет with a conjugated verb like поступает. That would be ungrammatical. The second verb must be in the infinitive: поступить.

What does поступить mean exactly? Is it “to apply,” “to enroll,” or “to get into”?

Поступить (в университет) usually means:

“to get into / be admitted to / enter (a university)”.

It focuses on the successful result: that you are now accepted and starting there.

Comparisons:

подавать документы в университет – to submit documents, to apply.
поступить в университет – to get in, to be accepted and start.
учиться в университете – to study at a university (ongoing).

So Моя подруга хочет поступить в университет means she wants to get into / be admitted to a university, not just “send an application.”

Why is it поступить, not поступать? What’s the difference between these two?

They are aspectual pairs:

поступать – imperfective aspect
поступить – perfective aspect

General difference:

поступать (в университет) – process, repeated actions, or no focus on completion
“to be applying / to be entering / to enter in general (as a type of action)”
поступить (в университет) – a single, completed result
“to (successfully) get into university (one time)”

In хочет поступить, perfective поступить is natural because:

she wants the result (to have been admitted), not just to be in the process of applying.

You could say хочет поступать в университет, but then it would sound more like “wants to (be in the habit of) entering universities” – strange here. So поступить is the idiomatic choice.

Why is it в университет and not в университете?

The preposition в can take different cases:

Accusative (куда? where to?) – direction, motion into:
- в университет – to the university (to enter it)
Prepositional (где? where?) – location, being in:
- в университете – at / in the university

In this sentence, поступить implies moving into / joining the institution, so we use в + accusative:

поступить в университет – “to enter a university”
учиться в университете – “to study at a university” (location → prepositional)

Why does университет look the same in this form? Isn’t accusative supposed to change the ending?

In Russian, for masculine inanimate nouns (like университет):

Accusative singular = Nominative singular

So:

Nominative: университет (что? what?)
Accusative: в университет (куда? where to?)

There is no visible change in form, but grammatically it’s accusative because:

it follows в in a directional sense (куда?),
the verb indicates motion/transition (поступить).

Why don’t we say something like “in a university” or “in the university”? Where are the articles in Russian?

Russian has no articles (no equivalent of “a / an / the”). The noun университет by itself can correspond to:

“a university”
“the university”
just “university” (in a general sense)

Context tells you whether it’s specific or general. In English you must choose an article; in Russian you don’t use one at all.

So в университет can be translated as:

“to a university”
“to the university”
depending on what fits the context in English.

Could I say Моя подруга хочет учиться в университете instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, that’s a correct and common sentence, but the meaning shifts slightly:

хочет поступить в университет – she wants to get into / be admitted to a university (focus on entering).
хочет учиться в университете – she wants to study at a university (focus on the process of studying there, more general).

Often these two desires overlap in real life, but grammatically:

поступить = enter (gain admission)
учиться = study (attend classes, be a student)

Could you explain the verb хочет a bit? How is хотеть conjugated?

Хотеть = “to want.” It’s irregular in the present tense. Singular forms:

я хочу – I want
ты хочешь – you (sg., informal) want
он / она / оно хочет – he / she / it wants

In the sentence, хочет is 3rd person singular (он/она/оно), agreeing with подруга (“she”).

Key points:

Stress is on the first syllable: хОчет, not хочЕт.
Spelling: хочет, not хотит or хочит.

Can I change the word order, like Подруга моя хочет поступить в университет? Does that sound natural?

Russian word order is flexible, but each variant has its own nuance.

Моя подруга хочет поступить в университет.
Neutral, standard: “My friend wants to enter university.”
Подруга моя хочет поступить в университет.
Poetic/literary or emphatic, highlighting “подруга” a bit more. In everyday speech this is possible but sounds stylized.
Моя подруга в университет хочет поступить.
Possible, but the reordering feels more emotional or contrastive, like stressing “to university (not somewhere else).”

For a typical neutral statement, Моя подруга хочет поступить в университет is the best choice.

The verb хочет is in the present tense, but getting into university is in the future. How does that work?

In Russian:

хочет is present tense – “she wants (now)”.
The infinitive поступить refers to a future action.

This combination is normal:

Она хочет поехать в Москву. – She wants to go to Moscow.
Он хочет купить машину. – He wants to buy a car.

The wanting is happening now; the other action (go, buy, enter) is understood as future relative to the wanting.

So Моя подруга хочет поступить в университет = “My friend now has the desire to enter university (in the future).”

How do I pronounce the whole sentence correctly? Where are the stresses?

Stresses (marked with capital letters):

моЯ подрУга хОчeт поступИть в университЕт

More detailed:

моя́ – stress on я
подру́га – stress on у
хо́чет – stress on о
поступить́ – stress on и (last syllable)
в – usually very short, often almost attached to the next word
университе́т – stress on е (the last vowel)

Unstressed о’s reduce toward a/ə in normal speech, so it may sound like:

[маЯ падрУга хОч’ит паступИт’ в университЕт] (approximate).