Learn Hardcore Russian: Одна зрительница написала, что любит, когда голосование и опрос проходят честно и открыто. - One female viewer wrote that she likes it when the voting and the survey are held honestly and openly.

Одна зрительница literally means “one (female) viewer”, but in context it is usually understood as “a (certain) female viewer” / “one of the viewers”.

Russian does not have articles (a / an / the), so speakers often use один / одна / одно / одни to convey something like “one / a certain / some”.
If you said just Зрительница написала…, it would sound more like “The (known / previously mentioned) female viewer wrote…”, as if the listener already knows who you mean.
Одна зрительница… introduces a new, non‑specific person into the story, close to English “One viewer wrote…” or “A viewer wrote…”.

What is the difference between зритель and зрительница?

Both mean “viewer / spectator”:

зритель – grammatically masculine; can refer to:
- a male viewer, or
- a viewer of unknown / irrelevant gender (generic use).
зрительница – explicitly female viewer.

In this sentence, the writer either knows the viewer is a woman, or wants to present the story in a more personal way by specifying her as female. Using зритель here would be grammatically fine but less specific about gender.

Why is the verb написала in the past tense, but любит and проходят are in the present?

This is typical reported speech in Russian and is different from English backshifting.

написала – past tense: “(she) wrote”. This describes the finished action of writing the message.
Inside what she wrote, we report her words in the present:
- любит – “(she) loves / likes” (present, a general preference).
- проходят – “(they) take place / are conducted” (present, habitual or general truth).

English often uses backshift:
“One viewer wrote that she loved it when the voting and poll were fair and open.”

Russian usually keeps the tense that would naturally appear in direct speech:
Она написала: “Я люблю, когда голосование и опрос проходят честно и открыто.”
Then that becomes: написала, что любит, когда … проходят …

Why is there a comma before что and another comma before когда?

Both что and когда introduce subordinate clauses, and Russian normally separates such clauses with commas.

Structure:

Одна зрительница написала,
→ main clause.
что любит,
→ first subordinate clause introduced by что (“that she likes”).
когда голосование и опрос проходят честно и открыто.
→ second subordinate clause introduced by когда (“when the voting and poll are honest and open”).

So we get:
Одна зрительница написала,
что любит,
когда голосование и опрос проходят честно и открыто.

Each new subordinate clause (introduced by что, когда, потому что, если, etc.) is normally separated by a comma from what comes before it.

Why is there no subject pronoun она before любит?

Russian often drops subject pronouns when the subject is clear from context and verb endings.

We already know the subject from Одна зрительница написала….
The verb любит is 3rd person singular; it agrees with она (she), он (he), or оно (it), but the context makes it clear it’s the same зрительница.
Saying …написала, что она любит… is grammatically correct, but the она is optional and would usually be omitted in natural speech/writing unless there is some contrast or emphasis.

So написала, что любит… is the most natural phrasing here.

What is the function of что in написала, что любит?

Here что is a conjunction meaning “that”, introducing a content clause (what she wrote):

написала, что любит…
= “(she) wrote that (she) likes…”

It is not the question word “what?”; in this position after a verb of saying / thinking (сказать, написать, подумать, знать, помнить, etc.), что usually functions like English “that” in reported speech.

Why is голосование и опрос followed by проходят, a plural verb?

In Russian, when two singular nouns are joined by и (“and”) and used as the subject, the verb is usually plural.

Subject: голосование и опрос – two items → plural meaning.
Verb: проходят – 3rd person plural present of проходить.
So: голосование и опрос проходят = “the voting and the poll take place / are conducted”.

If there were only one subject, the verb would be singular, e.g.
голосование проходит честно и открыто – “the voting is fair and open.”

What does проходят (from проходить) mean here? Isn’t проходить “to pass through”?

проходить is a polysemous verb (has several meanings). Two common ones are:

Physical “to pass by / through”
- Машина прошла мимо. – “The car passed by.”
Events: “to take place / to be held / to be conducted”
- Конференция проходит в Москве. – “The conference is taking place in Moscow.”

In голосование и опрос проходят честно и открыто, it’s the second meaning:
→ “the voting and poll are conducted / take place honestly and openly.”

Why are честно and открыто in the adverb form and not adjectives like честные or открытые?

They describe how the actions проходят (take place), so Russian uses adverbs, not adjectives.

честно – adverb from честный (“honest”) → “honestly, in an honest way”.
открыто – adverb from открытый (“open”) → “openly, in an open way”.

Since they modify the verb проходят, adverbs are correct:

проходят честно и открыто = “take place honestly and openly”.

Adjectives (честные, открытые) would modify nouns (e.g. честные выборы – “fair elections”), so they are not used here.

Why is голосование a neuter noun and зрительница feminine? How do I tell?

Russian noun gender is mostly determined by ending in the nominative singular:

зрительница – ends in -а → usually feminine.
голосование – ends in -е but with the verbal noun suffix -ние (-ание / -ение / -тие) → almost always neuter.
опрос – ends in a consonant → usually masculine.

So in this sentence:

зрительница – feminine, which is why написала ends with -а (feminine past).
голосование – neuter.
опрос – masculine.

Verb проходят does not show gender here because it is 3rd person plural; plural verbs do not mark gender.

Could we use нравится, as in ей нравится, когда…, instead of любит? What is the difference?

Both are possible, but they are not identical:

любить
- noun / clause:
- Stronger, more personal, often a deeper or more stable preference.
- Она любит, когда всё честно. – “She loves / really likes it when everything is honest.”
нравиться
- dative:
- More neutral “to please someone / to be liked by someone”.
- Ей нравится, когда всё честно. – “She likes it when everything is honest.” (a bit weaker / more casual).

In this sentence, любит sounds slightly more emotional or emphatic, fitting a personal opinion voiced by a viewer. Ей нравится, когда голосование и опрос проходят честно и открыто would also be correct, just a bit less strong.

Does одна here literally mean the numeral “one”, or is it more like the article “a”?

Formally, одна is the feminine form of the numeral один (“one”).
In context, though, it often works like an indefinite marker, close to “a / one (of)”:

Один человек сказал… – “One person said…” / “A person said…”
Одна зрительница написала… – “One (female) viewer wrote…” / “A viewer wrote…”

So it keeps the literal idea of “one”, but pragmatically it introduces a single, unspecified individual into the story, much like English “one viewer” or “a viewer”, not necessarily emphasizing the exact number.