Learn Hardcore Russian: Поддержка друзей помогает преодолевать языковой барьер. - Support from friends helps to overcome the language barrier.

поддержка кого? чего? – support of whom? of what? → this noun (поддержка) governs the genitive.
друзья (friends) → genitive plural: друзей.

So поддержка друзей literally means “support of (the) friends” / “friends’ support”. Any time you say “support of X” in Russian, X will typically be in the genitive case:

поддержка семьи – support of the family
поддержка коллег – support of colleagues
поддержка друзей – support of friends

Why is it помогает, not помогают? In English, “friends” are plural.

The verb agrees with the grammatical subject, not with the logical source of the support.

Subject: поддержка (support) – feminine, singular
Verb must match: помогает – 3rd person singular

So the structure is:

Поддержка (what?) – subject
друзей (of whom?) – a dependent genitive, not the subject
помогает – agrees with поддержка

Literally: “Support of friends helps (to) overcome the language barrier.”

Even though friends are plural in meaning, grammatically the only subject is “support”, which is singular.

What’s the difference between преодолевать and преодолеть here?

Both come from the verb преодолевать / преодолеть – to overcome.

преодолевать – imperfective (focus on process, repetition, general statement)
преодолеть – perfective (focus on a single, completed result)

In this sentence:

Поддержка друзей помогает преодолевать языковой барьер.

we’re making a general, habitual statement:

Friends’ support generally helps with the process of overcoming the barrier.
It’s not about one specific moment, but about how it works in general.

That’s why the imperfective infinitive преодолевать fits best. If you use преодолеть, it can sound more like help to achieve a one-time result:

Поддержка друзей помогла преодолеть языковой барьер.
Friends’ support helped (me) overcome the language barrier (once, successfully).

So:

present, general truth → помогает преодолевать
past, concrete success → помогла преодолеть

What case is языковой барьер in, and why is there no preposition?

Барьер here is in the accusative singular, because it’s the direct object of the infinitive преодолевать:

преодолевать (что?) – to overcome what? → барьер

For inanimate masculine nouns like барьер, the accusative form equals the nominative:

Nominative: барьер
Accusative: барьер

Языковой is an adjective meaning “language (related)”, and it agrees with барьер in gender, number, and case:

masculine, singular, accusative → языковой барьер

No preposition is needed because “to overcome something” in Russian is simply:

преодолевать что? – преодолевать языковой барьер

Why is it языковой барьер and not something like язык барьер?

Russian normally expresses “X barrier”, “X problem”, “X issue” with an adjective formed from the noun, not with two separate nouns:

языковой барьер – language barrier
визовый режим – visa regime / visa rules
семейные проблемы – family problems

Here:

Noun: язык – language
Derived adjective: языковой – “language-related”
Phrase: языковой барьер – literally “language-related barrier”

So язык барьер is not grammatical. You need the adjective form.

Is there any difference between поддержка друзей and поддержка от друзей?

Both are possible, but there is a nuance.

Поддержка друзей
- Very natural, neutral, common.
- Emphasizes whose support it is: the friends’ support.
- Often sounds a bit more “complete” or “inherent”: the support that comes from friends.
Поддержка от друзей
- Also correct, but slightly more colloquial.
- Emphasizes the source, like “support from friends”.
- The preposition от explicitly marks the origin.

In this particular sentence, поддержка друзей is stylistically smoother and more idiomatic. Поддержка от друзей would not be wrong, but it slightly shifts the focus to “coming from friends” rather than “friends’ support” as an abstract idea.

Does помогает преодолевать mean “helps to overcome” or “helps overcoming”? Do I need чтобы?

Помогает преодолевать corresponds to English “helps (to) overcome” or “helps in overcoming”.

The construction is:

помогать + инфинитив – to help (someone) do something

So:

помогает преодолевать – helps (to) overcome

You do not need чтобы here. In fact:

помогает, чтобы преодолевать… – would sound wrong in this context.

Compare:

Он помогает мне преодолевать языковой барьер.
He helps me overcome the language barrier.

The infinitive directly follows помогает. That’s the normal structure.

How would I explicitly say “Friends’ support helps me overcome the language barrier”?

You can add the indirect object (мне) before the infinitive:

Поддержка друзей помогает мне преодолевать языковой барьер.

Breakdown:

Поддержка друзей – friends’ support
помогает – helps
мне – to me (dative)
преодолевать – to overcome
языковой барьер – the language barrier

Russian often omits pronouns when they are obvious from context, which is why the original sentence doesn’t specify who is being helped.

How would I say “The support of my friends helps me overcome the language barrier”?

Just add a possessive adjective:

Поддержка моих друзей помогает мне преодолевать языковой барьер.

Changes:

друзей → моих друзей (genitive plural with possessive)
Rest of the sentence stays the same.

Structure:

Поддержка моих друзей – the support of my friends
помогает мне – helps me
преодолевать языковой барьер – to overcome the language barrier

Can I change the word order in this sentence? For example, can I start with помогает?

Yes, Russian word order is flexible, but neutral and most natural here is:

Поддержка друзей помогает преодолевать языковой барьер.

Other word orders are possible but add emphasis or sound less natural:

Друзей поддержка помогает преодолевать языковой барьер.
– Unusual; emphasizes друзей specifically (almost contrastively).
Помогает преодолевать языковой барьер поддержка друзей.
– Possible in spoken or poetic language; emphasizes the fact of helping first, then clarifies who/what is doing the helping.

For everyday, neutral speech or writing, stick with:

Поддержка друзей помогает преодолевать языковой барьер.

Where is the stress in the words поддержка, друзей, помогает, преодолевать, and языковой?

Stress marks (´) shown here:

поддЕржка – stress on -дЕр-
друзЕй – stress on the ending -Ей
помогАет – stress on -гА-
преодолевАть – stress on the last syllable -вать
языковОй – stress on the last syllable -вой

Putting it together with stresses:

ПоддЕржка друзЕй помогает преодолевАть языковОй барьЕр.