Breakdown of Когда моя подруга вышла замуж, мы отметили праздник дома.
Questions & Answers about Когда моя подруга вышла замуж, мы отметили праздник дома.
Подруга is a female friend. It tells you the person is female but says nothing by itself about romance.
- подруга = female friend
- друг = male friend (also the generic “friend” in dictionaries)
If you want to clearly say “girlfriend” (romantic partner), you usually say:
- моя девушка = my girlfriend
- мой парень = my boyfriend
So моя подруга is most naturally understood as “my (female) friend.” Context would be needed to know if it’s romantic.
Вышла замуж is a set phrase meaning “(she) got married” (for a woman).
- вышла – feminine past of выйти (perfective “to go out / to step out / to come out”)
- замуж – historically from за муж (“for a husband”), now fused into one word and used almost only in this expression
Together, выйти замуж literally was “to go out for a husband” and now just means “to get married” (for a woman).
Some important patterns:
- Она вышла замуж. – She got married.
- Она вышла замуж за моего брата. – She married my brother.
- за + accusative shows whom she married: за брата, за богатого мужчину etc.
You normally do not say она поженилась; that’s incorrect. See the next question for the verbs for men / couples.
For men and for couples, Russian uses different verbs:
For a man:
- жениться на (ком?) – to marry (to take a wife)
- Он женился на ней. – He married her.
- Он ещё не женат. – He isn’t married (male).
For a couple (two people together):
- пожениться – two people got married to each other.
- Они поженились. – They got married.
So:
- Она вышла за него замуж. – She married him.
- Он женился на ней. – He married her.
- Они поженились. – They got married (each other).
In your sentence, вышла замуж is correct because the subject is a woman (моя подруга).
Russian aspect (perfective vs. imperfective) is important here.
- вышла (замуж) – perfective past: a single completed event (she got married once, completed fact).
- выходила (замуж) – imperfective past: process / repeated / “was doing” sense.
So:
- Когда моя подруга вышла замуж… – When my friend got married (one definite event). ✓
- Когда моя подруга выходила замуж… – sounds like focusing on the ongoing process or some repeated situation; in this context it’s odd or wrong unless there’s a very specific nuance (e.g., talking about several failed attempts, which is unusual).
For a normal, single wedding, you want the perfective: вышла замуж.
Отметили is the past plural of отметить (perfective):
- отметить праздник – to mark / celebrate a holiday, an event.
- мы отметили праздник – we celebrated / we marked the occasion.
Праздновать (imperfective) / отпраздновать (perfective) are also common:
- мы праздновали – we were celebrating / celebrated (focus on the process, not completion).
- мы отпраздновали – we celebrated (more straightforward “we had the celebration”).
Nuance:
- отметить often feels like “to mark an occasion” (have some celebration for it, maybe not huge).
- отпраздновать can sound like “have a real celebration / party for it.”
In everyday speech they overlap a lot; in your sentence, мы отметили праздник дома means “we celebrated the occasion at home.”
Праздник is a broad word:
- a public holiday: новогодний праздник (New Year holiday)
- any kind of special day / celebration: birthday, wedding, anniversary, etc.
In this sentence, праздник really refers to the special occasion of her marriage (her wedding / the celebration of her getting married). English might naturally say:
- “we celebrated it at home”
- “we celebrated the occasion at home”
- “we celebrated her wedding at home”
Russian can just call it праздник, without repeating “wedding.” Context makes it clear.
Russian has several related forms:
дома – “at home” (location, adverb-like)
- Мы были дома. – We were at home.
- Мы отметили праздник дома. – We celebrated the occasion at home.
в доме – “in the house (building)” (more literal “inside the house”)
- Мы были в доме. – We were in the house (as opposed to outside).
- Could be any house, not necessarily “home.”
домой – “(to) home” (direction)
- Мы пошли домой. – We went home.
So:
- дома = where? at home
- в доме = where? in the house (physical interior)
- домой = where to? (to) home
In your sentence дома is correct because it tells where the celebration took place: at home.
Sentence: Когда моя подруга вышла замуж, мы отметили праздник дома.
Main nouns:
моя подруга – nominative singular feminine
- Subject of вышла.
мы – nominative plural
- Subject of отметили.
праздник – accusative singular masculine
- Direct object of отметили (we celebrated what? the occasion).
дома – adverb-like form (historically a locative form of дом)
- Indicates location “at home.”
замуж – historically case form, but in modern language it behaves as a fixed adverbial form used only in выйти замуж; learners can treat it as part of that set expression, not as a regular case to decline.
So the core pattern is: [Subject in nominative] + [verb] + [direct object in accusative] + [adverbial location].
The sentence has two clauses:
- Когда моя подруга вышла замуж – subordinate time clause (introduced by когда).
- мы отметили праздник дома – main clause.
In Russian, a subordinate clause introduced by когда is normally separated from the main clause by a comma:
- Когда …, (то) …
- Когда моя подруга вышла замуж, мы отметили праздник дома.
You can also put the когда-clause second:
- Мы отметили праздник дома, когда моя подруга вышла замуж.
The meaning is essentially the same (“we celebrated at home when she got married”), though starting with Когда… slightly emphasizes the time event first.
Russian does not have a separate “past perfect” tense like English (“had done”). Instead, Russian mainly uses:
- tense (past / present / future)
- aspect (imperfective vs. perfective)
Here:
- вышла (замуж) – perfective past: a completed event in the past.
- отметили – perfective past: another completed event in the past.
The sequence “first she got married, then we celebrated” is clear from context and aspect; Russian doesn’t need a special “had got married” form.
So English might use:
- “When my friend got married, we celebrated…”
or - “When my friend had gotten married, we celebrated…”
Russian uses simple perfective past for both: Когда она вышла замуж, мы отметили…
Yes, you can say отмечали, but the nuance changes:
- отметили – perfective: focuses on the fact / result that the celebration took place (completed event).
- отмечали – imperfective: focuses on the process / duration of celebrating (we were celebrating).
Examples:
Когда моя подруга вышла замуж, мы отметили праздник дома.
= When my friend got married, we (did indeed) celebrate the occasion at home. (Result.)Когда моя подруга вышла замуж, мы весь вечер отмечали праздник дома.
= …we spent the whole evening celebrating at home. (Process emphasized.)
In your original sentence, отметили is the most natural choice.
Stresses (capital letters mark the stressed syllable):
- Когда́ – ko-gdA
- моя́ – mo-YA
- подру́га – pa-DRU-ga
- вы́шла – VY-shla
- за́муж – ZA-muzh
- мы – my (unstressed)
- отме́тили – at-ME-ti-li
- пра́здник – PRAZ-dnik
- до́ма – DO-ma
Full sentence with stresses:
Когда́ моя́ подру́га вы́шла за́муж, мы отме́тили пра́здник до́ма.
Spoken rhythmically, it sounds roughly like:
ka-GDA ma-YA pa-DRU-ga VY-shla ZA-muzh, my at-ME-ti-li PRAZ-dnik DO-ma.
In this sentence, когда clearly means “when” in a time sense: one particular past event (her getting married).
- Когда моя подруга вышла замуж… – When my friend got married…
Когда can sometimes have a conditional-like meaning close to “whenever / if,” especially with future or repeated actions:
- Когда будешь в Москве, заходи в гости.
= When(ever) you’re in Moscow, come visit. (Very close to “if you are ever in Moscow…”)
But with a single, completed past event like вышла замуж, it is understood strictly as when, not “if.”