Breakdown of Мой друг держится спокойно на сцене.
Questions & Answers about Мой друг держится спокойно на сцене.
-ся is the reflexive ending. The infinitive is держаться.
In this sentence держаться means “to behave / to carry oneself / to conduct oneself”. In this meaning, the verb is always reflexive in Russian – you cannot say держать with this meaning.
Compare:
- держать микрофон – to hold a microphone (non‑reflexive, literal “hold”)
- держаться спокойно – to behave / remain calm, to carry oneself calmly (reflexive)
So yes, the -ся is absolutely necessary here. Without it, держать would need a direct object (e.g. держать что-то).
The infinitive is держаться.
Forming держится from держаться:
- Infinitive: держаться
- 3rd person singular ending (for many -ать verbs): -ет → держит
- Add reflexive -ся → держится
So the full form держится is:
держ- (stem) + -ит (3sg ending) + -ся (reflexive).
Meaning here: “(he/she) carries himself/herself / behaves / remains (in some state)”.
Спокойно here is an adverb (“calmly”), not an adjective.
- спокойный = calm (adjective, describes a noun)
- спокойный человек – a calm person
- спокойно = calmly (adverb, describes how something is done)
- он говорит спокойно – he speaks calmly
In Мой друг держится спокойно на сцене, спокойно tells us how he держится (how he carries himself / behaves) – so it must be an adverb.
If you used an adjective, you’d have to change the structure, for example:
- Мой друг спокоен на сцене. – My friend is calm on stage.
Here спокоен is a short-form adjective, linked to друг, not to the verb.
Subtle nuance:
- быть спокойным / он спокоен – to be calm (as a state). This focuses on his inner state or general emotional calm.
- держаться спокойно – to carry oneself / behave calmly, especially in some situation (here: on stage).
Держаться often adds a flavour of self-control, composure, or public behaviour:
- Он держится очень уверенно. – He carries himself very confidently.
- Она держалась достойно. – She behaved / conducted herself with dignity.
So держится спокойно на сцене suggests not just that he is calm inside, but that his behaviour on stage looks calm and composed.
Yes, you can say:
- Мой друг ведёт себя спокойно на сцене.
Both are correct, but there is a nuance:
- вести себя – explicitly means “to behave”, often neutral or slightly evaluative (good/bad behaviour).
- держаться – “to carry oneself / to conduct oneself, maintain a certain manner”, often used about how someone appears in public, on stage, in an interview, at an event, etc.
In this sentence:
- ведёт себя спокойно – focuses on behaviour as actions.
- держится спокойно – focuses a bit more on manner, composure, image.
In many everyday contexts they overlap and are interchangeable, but держаться is very natural in performance or public-situation contexts.
In Russian, на and в both mean “in/on”, but their usage is partly idiomatic.
For locations like stage, square, street, balcony, etc., Russian usually uses на:
- на сцене – on (the) stage
- на площади – on the square
- на улице – in the street
- на балконе – on the balcony
В сцене would sound wrong here. Сцена is seen as a surface or area where action happens, so Russian chooses на.
Also note case:
- на сцене – Prepositional case, location: “on stage (where?)”.
- на сцену – Accusative case, direction: “onto the stage (where to?)”.
So держится спокойно на сцене = he is already on the stage; we’re talking about his behaviour there.
Друг is in the nominative singular.
Reasons:
- It is the subject of the sentence (the one doing the action: держится).
- It appears with мой, which is also nominative masculine singular:
- мой друг – my friend (subject).
Other cases would look different in context, for example:
- Я вижу моего друга. – Accusative (object of “see”).
- У моего друга есть билет. – Genitive (after у).
Here, Мой друг держится… – standard subject + verb; друг must be nominative.
Grammatically, друг is masculine, and it most naturally refers to a male friend.
For a female friend, the usual word is:
- подруга – (female) friend, girlfriend (context-dependent)
Examples:
- Мой друг – my (male) friend
- Моя подруга – my (female) friend
In some contexts, people may call a close female friend друг metaphorically (stressing friendship, not gender), but in everyday speech друг = male friend, подруга = female friend.
So Мой друг держится спокойно на сцене is naturally understood as “My (male) friend behaves calmly on stage.”
Stress: де́ржится – the stress is on the first syllable: ДЕ-ржи-ца.
Approximate pronunciation (IPA): [ˈdʲeʐɪt͡sə]
Details:
- д is soft before е → дь-like.
- е = “ye” sound in this position: дье.
- рж pronounced like soft р
- ж, but flows as one cluster.
- тс becomes an affricate [t͡s], similar to ц.
- Final -ся after consonant is usually [sə] or [sʲə]; many speakers in casual speech reduce it, but you can safely say -ся clearly as [sʲa]/[sʲə].
So you can think ДЕ́Р-жи-ца, with a clear stress on the first syllable.
Держаться is imperfective.
Imperfective aspect is used:
- for ongoing actions / states
- for repeated, habitual actions
- for descriptions, not for completed results
In Мой друг держится спокойно на сцене, it describes:
- either a current ongoing situation (right now he is on stage and he is calm), or
- a general tendency/habit (whenever he’s on stage, he behaves calmly).
There is a perfective подержаться, but it means something completely different: “to hold onto something for a while”, not “to carry oneself”. It wouldn’t be used in this behavioural meaning.
Держаться has several meanings; two common ones:
To hold on to something (physically) – usually with за + Accusative:
- Держаться за поручень. – To hold on to the handrail.
- Крепко держись за меня. – Hold on tight to me.
To behave / conduct oneself / carry oneself / keep (some state) – with an adverb or description:
- Он держится уверенно. – He carries himself confidently.
- Она держалась спокойно. – She remained calm (in how she behaved).
In Мой друг держится спокойно на сцене, it is clearly meaning (2) because:
- it has an adverb спокойно (calmly), not за + object,
- the context is “on stage”, where we describe performance/behaviour.
Yes, Мой друг спокойно держится на сцене is also correct.
Word order in Russian is flexible, and both versions are fine:
- Мой друг держится спокойно на сцене.
- Мой друг спокойно держится на сцене.
The basic meaning is the same. Very subtle differences in focus:
- держится спокойно (verb + adverb) as a chunk: more neutral, typical order.
- спокойно держится places a bit more emphasis on спокойно (calmly), especially in spoken intonation:
- “As for how he behaves, he behaves calmly on stage.”
In normal conversation both are natural; you don’t need to worry about a strong difference here.
Yes, both are possible, but they have slightly different nuances:
Мой друг спокоен на сцене.
- спокоен – short-form adjective “is calm”.
- Focus: his state (he is calm when he is on stage).
Мой друг остаётся спокойным на сцене.
- остаётся – remains; спокойным – instrumental (remains calm).
- Focus: he manages to stay calm, doesn’t lose his calmness over time.
Мой друг держится спокойно на сцене.
- Focus: his behaviour/manner appears calm and composed on stage.
All are correct; you’d choose depending on whether you want to stress inner state (спокоен), maintaining that state (остаётся спокойным), or outward behaviour and composure (держится спокойно).
This is the classic location vs direction distinction:
- на сцене – Prepositional case: where? (location)
- Он на сцене. – He is on stage.
- на сцену – Accusative case: куда? (direction)
- Он вышел на сцену. – He went onto the stage.
In your sentence:
- Мой друг держится спокойно на сцене. – He is (already) on stage; we describe how he behaves there.
So на сцене is correct. If you said на сцену, it would imply motion towards the stage, which doesn’t match держится.