Learn Hardcore Russian: В выходные я люблю готовить лёгкий ужин для семьи. - On weekends I like to cook a light dinner for the family.

выходные comes from выходной (day off).
Here it’s plural: выходные (дни) = days off / weekends.
After в with a meaning of time (when?), Russian often uses the accusative case, but:
- выходные has the same form in nominative plural and accusative plural, so it looks the same.
So grammatically it’s в + accusative plural, but the form coincides with the nominative.

You can think of В выходные as a fixed phrase = “On weekends”.

Could I say по выходным or на выходных instead of в выходные? Are there differences?

All three are common; the difference is subtle:

В выходные я люблю…
Very natural, especially in speech; “On weekends I like…”
По выходным я люблю…
Literally “by/according to weekends,” but idiomatically “on weekends (regularly, as a habit).”
This one slightly emphasizes regularity / every weekend.
На выходных я люблю…
Also “on the weekend(s), during the weekend time.” Often used for a particular time frame:
- На выходных я был у родителей. – I was at my parents’ this (past) weekend. But it can also be generic in some regions/speaking styles.

In your sentence, all three are acceptable and would usually be understood as a general habit. The nuance is small and more about style than strict grammar.

Why is it я люблю готовить, not я люблю готовлю?

In Russian, when one verb expresses liking/wanting/etc. and the next verb expresses the action, the second verb stays in the infinitive:

Я люблю готовить. – I like to cook.
Я хочу готовить. – I want to cook.
Я буду готовить. – I will cook.

You cannot conjugate both:

✗ я люблю готовлю – incorrect.

Pattern:

[Conjugated verb] + [infinitive]
- люблю готовить
- начинаю готовить
- пытаюсь готовить

So люблю is conjugated (1st person singular), and готовить stays in the infinitive.

Why is it готовить, not приготовить? What’s the difference?

Both are related to “to cook”, but they differ in aspect:

готовить – imperfective aspect
Focus on the process, a habit, or something not completed:
- Я люблю готовить. – I like cooking (in general, as an activity).
- Она долго готовила ужин. – She was cooking dinner for a long time.
приготовить – perfective aspect
Focus on the result, a finished action:
- Я приготовил ужин. – I have cooked / I cooked the dinner (it’s done).
- Она приготовит ужин к семи. – She’ll have dinner ready by seven.

In your sentence we talk about a general habit (“On weekends I like…”) → Russian uses the imperfective: люблю готовить.

What exactly does лёгкий mean here? Is it “light” or “easy”?

Лёгкий can mean both “light (not heavy)” and “easy”, depending on context:

лёгкий чемодан – a light suitcase (not heavy)
лёгкий экзамен – an easy exam

With food:

лёгкий ужин usually means “a light dinner”:
- Not too heavy, not too many calories, easy to digest.

If you want to emphasize “simple to make” rather than “light food,” you’d more likely say:

простой ужин – a simple dinner (not complicated)
несложный ужин – a not-difficult / uncomplicated dinner

In your sentence, лёгкий ужин is understood as light in terms of food, not as an “easy exam” type of easy.

Why is it лёгкий ужин and not something like лёгкое ужин?

Because Russian adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe in:

Gender
Number
Case

Here:

ужин is masculine, singular, nominative.
So the adjective must also be masculine, singular, nominative → лёгкий.

Examples of agreement changes:

лёгкий ужин – a light dinner (nom. masc. sing.)
лёгкого ужина нет. – There is no light dinner. (gen. masc. sing.)
о лёгком ужине – about a light dinner (prep. masc. sing.)

So лёгкое ужин is wrong because лёгкое is neuter, but ужин is masculine.

Why do we say для семьи, and what case is семьи?

The preposition для (“for”) always requires the genitive case.

The noun семья (“family”) declines like this (singular):

Nom: семья
Gen: семьи
Dat: семье
Acc: семью
Instr: семьёй
Prep: семье

After для we use the genitive → для семьи = for (the) family.

So семьи here is genitive singular (not dative).
You could also say:

для моей семьи – for my family
but in Russian, my / our is often dropped if it’s clear from context, especially with close relatives.

Could we say семье instead of семьи after для?

No. Для always takes genitive, and семье is dative or prepositional, not genitive.

Correct:

для семьи – for (the) family

Incorrect:

✗ для семье

Why is there no word for “a” in лёгкий ужин? How do you say a or the in Russian?

Russian has no articles (no direct equivalents of a / an / the).
The noun phrase лёгкий ужин can mean:

a light dinner
the light dinner
just light dinner in general

The exact meaning (a vs the) is understood from context, word order, and whether the thing is new or already known in the conversation.

If you really need to stress definiteness, you can use things like:

этот ужин – this dinner (often functions like the dinner)
какой-то ужин – some (kind of) dinner

Is семьи here “family” in singular or “families” in plural?

Here it is singular.

The noun семья has:

семьи as:
- genitive singular (of one family)
- nominative plural (families)

But after для, we know it must be genitive, so it’s:

для семьи – for (my/our/the) family (one family)

If it were plural nominative “families,” we couldn’t use it after для like this; we’d still need the genitive plural form: для семей – for families.

Is the word order fixed? Could I say Я люблю в выходные готовить лёгкий ужин для семьи?

The word order is flexible in Russian. All of these are grammatically correct:

В выходные я люблю готовить лёгкий ужин для семьи.
Я люблю в выходные готовить лёгкий ужин для семьи.
Я люблю готовить лёгкий ужин для семьи в выходные.

Nuances:

Starting with В выходные focuses on when:
- On weekends, I like to cook…
Putting в выходные in the middle or at the end can sound a bit more neutral or conversational, but the core meaning doesn’t really change here.

Russian uses word order more for emphasis than for basic grammar.

How do you pronounce выходные, лёгкий, and семьи?

Stress and main points:

выходны́е
- Stress on -ны́-: вы-ход-НЫЕ
- ы is a back vowel (no exact English equivalent; similar to the vowel in “roses” but tenser and further back).
лёгкий
- Stress on лё́г-: ЛЁГ-кий
- ё always stressed and pronounced like “yo” in “yonder”.
- The гк combination is pronounced a bit like [хk] or a softened gk, so you’ll often hear something close to [lyókh-kiy].
семьи́ (genitive singular “of the family”)
- Stress on -и́: сем-ЬИ́
- The ь (soft sign) softens the м, and и is like ee in “see”.

Together:
В выходны́е я люблю́ гото́вить лё́гкий у́жин для семьИ́.