Learn Hardcore Russian: Если ты пропустил встречу, по той же ссылке можно открыть запись и в любой момент сделать паузу. - If you missed the meeting, you can open the recording via the same link and take a pause at any moment.

Пропустил is perfective past and presents the action as a single, completed event in the past: “(if) you did miss the meeting (at that time)”.

если ты пропустил встречу = If you missed the meeting (already, at some point before now)…
если ты пропускал встречу would suggest a repeated / habitual or ongoing process: If you used to miss the meeting / were missing the meeting (over some period) – which doesn’t fit here.
если ты пропустишь встречу = If you miss the meeting (in the future)… – that would change the meaning to a future condition.

So пропустил matches the idea: If it happened that you didn’t attend that specific meeting that already took place…

How does gender work in ты пропустил? What if the speaker is female?

Russian past-tense verbs agree with the gender and number of the subject.

masculine singular: ты пропустил
feminine singular: ты пропустила
neuter singular (with оно): оно пропустило
plural (any mix of genders): вы/они пропустили

In neutral written instructions (like a website or general announcement), Russian often uses the masculine singular form by default, even though it can address people of any gender. A woman talking about herself would say:

Я пропустила встречу. – I (female) missed the meeting.

Why is встречу in that form? What case is it and why?

Встречу is the accusative singular of встреча (meeting).

nominative: встреча – the basic dictionary form
accusative: встречу – used for the direct object of a verb

In пропустить встречу (to miss a meeting), встречу is the direct object of the verb пропустить, so it must be in the accusative.

Compare:

Я посетил встречу. – I attended the meeting.
Я пропустил встречу. – I missed the meeting.

What exactly does по той же ссылке mean, and why do we use по here?

По той же ссылке literally means “via the same link” or “through the same link”.

The preposition по has many uses, and one of them is “by means of / via”, especially with communication channels or routes:

по телефону – by phone
по электронной почте – by email
по этой кнопке (in UI language) – by this button / using this button
по ссылке – via the link / using the link

Ссылка (link) with по takes the dative case, so:

feminine noun ссылка → dative singular ссылке
with the demonstrative pronoun та (that):
- dative feminine: той
- plus же → той же ссылке = “the same link (as before)”

What is the difference between той же ссылке and something like этой же ссылке or той самой ссылке?

All three can be translated as “the same link”, but the nuance is slightly different:

той же ссылке – that same link (already mentioned / understood from context).
- тот же / та же / то же / те же = “the same (as before)”.
этой же ссылке – this same link (the one right here / the one we’re looking at).
- draws attention a bit more to something present/visible (“this very link”).
той самой ссылке – that very link / that exact link.
- тот самый / та самая adds emphasis to precise identity.

In instructions about an online event, по той же ссылке is standard: it refers back to the same link you already used to join the meeting (or the one that was sent earlier).

In по той же ссылке можно открыть запись, why is there no subject like ты or вы? Who is doing the action?

This is an impersonal construction using можно + infinitive:

можно открыть запись – it is possible to open the recording / you can open the recording.

Russian often uses можно + infinitive without an explicit subject to express a general possibility or permission, similar to English “you can…” or “one can…”:

Здесь можно курить. – You can smoke here / Smoking is allowed here.
Так делать нельзя. – You can’t do that / That’s not allowed.

In your sentence, the meaning is “Using the same link, you can open the recording…” but ты is left out to sound more neutral and instructional.

Can the word order around можно change? For example, could we say запись можно открыть по той же ссылке?

Yes. Russian word order is flexible, and several variants are grammatically correct, though the emphasis changes slightly:

По той же ссылке можно открыть запись.
– Neutral; starts with the means (via the same link), then states what’s possible.
Запись можно открыть по той же ссылке.
– Emphasizes запись (“the recording”), then clarifies how.
Можно по той же ссылке открыть запись.
– Very neutral speech-like order; можно comes first as in “You can…”.

All of these are acceptable. In instructional text, По той же ссылке можно открыть запись sounds natural and clear because it immediately connects with the previously mentioned link.

What does запись mean here, and what form is it in?

Запись is a feminine noun that can mean recording, entry, or note, depending on context. Here it clearly means a recording of the meeting.

Grammatically:

nominative singular: запись
accusative singular: запись (for inanimate feminine nouns, nominative = accusative)

In можно открыть запись, запись is the direct object of открыть (to open), so it’s in the accusative case, but it looks the same as the nominative.

Other examples:

послушать запись – to listen to the recording
сохранить запись – to save the recording
удалить запись – to delete the recording

Why is the phrase в любой момент used, and why the preposition в for time? Isn’t в usually “in” or “into”?

В любой момент is a set phrase meaning “at any moment / at any time”.

Russian uses в + accusative with many time expressions where English uses “at” or “on”:

в три часа – at three o’clock
в понедельник – on Monday
в эту минуту – at this minute
в тот момент – at that moment
в любой момент – at any moment

So here:

в
- любой (masc. acc. sg.) + момент (acc. sg.)
together: в любой момент = at any time / whenever you want

Why сделать паузу instead of a verb like поставить на паузу or приостановить? How natural is this?

All of these are possible, but they have slightly different styles:

сделать паузу – literally “to make a pause”.
- Quite neutral and common in speech:
  - Давай сделаем паузу. – Let’s take a break.
- In the context of a recording: “you can at any moment make a pause” = you can stop it temporarily.
поставить на паузу – “to put on pause”.
- Very common specifically for media playback (videos, audio, etc.).
- Sounds very natural for pausing a recording:
  - Видео можно в любой момент поставить на паузу.
приостановить – “to suspend, temporarily stop”.
- Slightly more formal or technical:
  - Вы можете приостановить воспроизведение.

In your sentence, сделать паузу is understandable and acceptable, but many speakers would probably phrase it as:

…и в любой момент поставить запись на паузу.

The given version is still correct Russian and fine in general instructions.

Why are both verbs открыть and сделать in the infinitive? How do they connect grammatically to можно?

They are both infinitives governed by можно:

можно открыть запись – it is possible to open the recording
(можно) в любой момент сделать паузу – (it is possible) to make a pause at any time

The full logical structure is:

…по той же ссылке можно (1) открыть запись и (2) в любой момент сделать паузу.

In Russian, a single можно can apply to multiple infinitives joined by и (and):

Здесь можно купить билеты и заказать еду.
– You can buy tickets and order food here.

It would be redundant (and unnatural) to repeat можно:

❌ можно открыть запись и можно сделать паузу – technically understandable but stylistically clumsy.

Could we say Если ты пропустил встречу, ты можешь по той же ссылке открыть запись… instead? What is the difference in tone?

Yes, that is grammatically correct:

Если ты пропустил встречу, ты можешь по той же ссылке открыть запись…

The difference is mainly in tone and style:

ты можешь…
- more direct, personal; clearly addresses you as an individual.
- typical in conversation or friendly instructions.
можно… (impersonal)
- more neutral, general, and a bit more “instructional”.
- very common in written guides, help pages, and UI texts.

So the original можно открыть запись fits well with a generic instruction for any user reading the text, not a personal message to a specific “you”.