Learn Hardcore Russian: Моя весёлая подруга рассказывает шутку. - My cheerful female friend is telling a joke.

That’s why you get весёлая подруга (cheerful female friend), just like весёлая девочка (cheerful girl) or весёлая собака (cheerful dog – if female).

Why is весёлая placed before подруга? Can it come after the noun?

The default position for adjectives in Russian is before the noun:

весёлая подруга – a cheerful friend

You can sometimes put adjectives after the noun, but it is less common and usually has a special, more expressive or poetic feel, or appears in fixed expressions:

подруга весёлая – sounds more like “my friend (who is) cheerful,” often with contrast or emphasis.

In everyday neutral speech, весёлая подруга is the natural word order.

What is the difference between подруга and друг?

Both can mean friend, but:

друг is grammatically masculine and usually refers to a male friend.
подруга is grammatically feminine and usually refers to a female friend.

Socially:

подруга can be just “female friend,” but in some contexts it can also suggest a girlfriend / partner; the context usually makes it clear.
There is no separate everyday word that means only “female platonic friend” with no chance of romantic meaning; it’s all about context and tone.

Why is it шутку and not шутка?

Шутка changes to шутку because it is the direct object of the verb рассказывает.

The direct object in Russian usually takes the accusative case.
Feminine nouns in -а often change -а → -у in the accusative singular:
- книга → книгу
- машина → машину
- шутка → шутку

So the sentence literally is: “My cheerful friend tells a joke (object).”

Does рассказывает mean “tells” or “is telling”? How do I choose?

Russian has only one present tense form for actions like this; рассказывает can mean both:

She tells a joke (general / regular action)
She is telling a joke (action happening right now)

Context decides which English translation is better, but in Russian you just use рассказывает for both.

What is the difference between рассказывать and рассказать?

These verbs form an aspect pair:

рассказывать (imperfective) – process, repeated action, or focus on the activity:
- Она рассказывает шутку. – She is telling a joke / She tells a joke.
рассказать (perfective) – one-time, completed action, focus on the result:
- Она рассказала шутку. – She told a joke (finished).

In the present tense you normally use only the imperfective (рассказывает). Perfective verbs don’t have a real present tense for ongoing actions; their “present” forms refer to the future:

Она расскажет шутку. – She will tell a joke.

Can I say говорит шутку instead of рассказывает шутку?

Normally, no.

рассказывать (шутку / историю / сказку) means to tell or narrate something that has a structure (a joke, a story, etc.).
говорить by itself usually means to speak / to talk, not specifically “to tell a joke.”

You could say:

Она шутит. – She is joking.
Она рассказывает шутку. – She is telling a joke.

But говорит шутку sounds unnatural in standard Russian.

What is the nuance of шутка? Is it only a verbal joke, or can it be a prank?

Шутка usually means a joke in words – something said to be funny.

For a short, structured joke with a punchline (what many learners think of as a “joke”), Russians often also use анекдот.
For a prank / practical joke, розыгрыш is more precise, though шутка might be used in a broader sense in casual speech.

In this sentence, шутку рассказывать most naturally means “to tell a verbal joke.”

How is весёлая pronounced, and what’s going on with the letter ё?

Весёлая is pronounced approximately [vye-SYO-la-ya]. Key points:

The stressed syllable is сё: весЁлая.
ё is always stressed and pronounced [yo] (like “yo” in “yoga”).

In many printed texts, ё is written as е: веселая. The pronunciation, however, stays [vye-SYO-la-ya]; you have to know from vocabulary that it’s ё, not е.

What are the stress patterns of all the words in this sentence?

With stress marks, the sentence is:

Моя́ – mo-YA
весё́лая – ve-SYO-la-ya (main stress on сё)
подру́га – pa-DRU-ga
расска́зывает – ra-SSKA-vee-yet (stress on ска́)
шу́тку – SHUT-ku

Accurate stress is crucial in Russian; changing stress can make you sound unnatural or change the word entirely in some cases.

Can I change the word order, for example: Моя подруга рассказывает весёлую шутку or Шутку рассказывает моя весёлая подруга?

Yes, Russian word order is relatively flexible, but it changes emphasis.

Моя весёлая подруга рассказывает шутку. – Neutral: “My cheerful friend is telling a joke.”
Моя подруга рассказывает весёлую шутку. – Now the joke is described as cheerful; meaning shifts to “My friend is telling a funny joke.”
Шутку рассказывает моя весёлая подруга. – Emphasis moves to who is telling the joke; sounds like “It’s my cheerful friend who is telling the joke.”

So you can move words, but be aware that you may also change the meaning or focus.

Can I omit моя and just say Весёлая подруга рассказывает шутку?

Grammatically, yes, but the nuance changes.

Моя весёлая подруга… – clearly my friend.
Весёлая подруга… – sounds more like “a cheerful (female) friend” without specifying whose.

Russians often omit мой / моя with close relatives (мама, папа, брат, сестра), especially in the first person:

Мама пришла. – My mom has come.

With подруга, you can omit моя in context, but “my friend” is not as automatic as “my mom,” so if you need to be clear that she is yours, keep моя.