По выходным мама тушит капусту с морковью.

On weekends Mom stews cabbage with carrots.

Breakdown of По выходным мама тушит капусту с морковью.

• с: with
• по: on
• мама: the mother
• выходные: the weekend
• морковь: the carrot
• капуста: the cabbage
• тушить: to stew

Questions & Answers about По выходным мама тушит капусту с морковью.

Why is it по выходным and not по выходные?

Because по in this time expression requires the dative case.

• выходные is the base form.
• In по выходным, the noun is in the dative plural.
• This expression means on weekends or at weekends.

This is a very common Russian pattern:

• по утрам = in the mornings
• по вечерам = in the evenings
• по понедельникам = on Mondays
• по выходным = on weekends

So here, по + dative plural expresses something that happens regularly at those times.

Why is мама in that form?

Мама is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative case.

In this sentence, мама is the person doing the action of cooking, so nominative is exactly what you would expect.

A useful thing to remember is that мама is grammatically a feminine noun, even though it ends in -а like many other feminine nouns.

Why is капусту spelled with -у at the end?

Because капуста is the direct object of the verb тушит, so it goes into the accusative case.

• Nominative: капуста
• Accusative: капусту

This is the normal pattern for many feminine nouns ending in -а:

• мама → маму
• книга → книгу
• капуста → капусту

So капусту means it is the thing being stewed.

Why is it с морковью and not с морковь?

Because the preposition с meaning with usually takes the instrumental case.

• Nominative: морковь
• Instrumental: морковью

So:

• с морковью = with carrot / with carrots

This is a very common pattern:

• с братом = with (my) brother
• с мамой = with mom
• с книгой = with a book
• с морковью = with carrot

Why is морковью singular if English often says with carrots?

Russian often uses the singular for ingredients where English might naturally use either singular or plural.

So с морковью literally looks like with carrot, but in natural English it may be translated as with carrots, depending on context.

This is not strange in Russian. It often treats ingredients as a substance or category rather than as separate countable items.

So капусту с морковью means cabbage prepared together with carrot as an ingredient, not necessarily exactly one carrot.

What does тушить mean exactly?

Тушить means to stew, to braise, or to cook slowly with a little liquid.

It is not the same as:

• варить = to boil
• жарить = to fry
• печь / запекать = to bake / roast

In cooking, тушить suggests a soft, slow cooking method, often for vegetables, meat, or mixed dishes.

Be careful: тушить can also mean to put out in another context:

• тушить пожар = to put out a fire

So context matters.

Why is the verb тушит and not something like a past tense form?

Тушит is the 3rd person singular present tense of тушить.

It agrees with мама:

• я тушу = I stew
• ты тушишь = you stew
• он/она тушит = he/she stews
• мы тушим = we stew
• вы тушите = you stew
• они тушат = they stew

So мама тушит = mom stews / mom is stewing.

In this sentence, because of по выходным, the present tense is understood as a habitual action: something she does regularly on weekends.

Why is the present tense used if it means something she does regularly?

In Russian, the present tense of an imperfective verb is very commonly used for habitual or repeated actions.

So мама тушит капусту с морковью can mean:

• Mom stews cabbage with carrots
• Mom cooks cabbage with carrots
• Mom usually stews cabbage with carrots

When по выходным is added, it clearly means this is her regular weekend habit.

This is very similar to English simple present in sentences like:

• She works on weekends
• He reads at night
• We eat together on Sundays

Why is the verb imperfective here?

The verb тушить is imperfective, and that fits well because the sentence describes a repeated, habitual action, not one completed event.

Russian aspect matters a lot:

• imperfective: process, repetition, habit, general fact
• perfective: one completed result

Here the sentence is about what mom does on weekends in general, so imperfective is the natural choice.

A perfective verb would sound wrong in this context unless you were talking about a specific completed instance.

What is the normal word order here, and can it change?

The given word order is very natural:

• По выходным = time expression
• мама = subject
• тушит = verb
• капусту с морковью = object phrase

So the sentence is structured like:

On weekends, mom stews cabbage with carrots.

Russian word order is more flexible than English because case endings show grammatical roles. You could move things around for emphasis, for example:

• Мама по выходным тушит капусту с морковью.
• Капусту с морковью мама тушит по выходным.

These alternatives are possible, but the original version is neutral and natural.

Is с морковью attached to the verb or to капусту?

In practice, it works with the whole idea of the dish, but most learners can think of it as modifying капусту:

• капусту с морковью = cabbage with carrot

So the object is really a noun phrase: cabbage with carrot.

At the same time, semantically it also tells you how or with what the cabbage is cooked. In real usage, Russian speakers do not usually worry much about this distinction here, because the meaning is clear.

Why is there no word for the or a?

Russian has no articles.

So Russian does not normally use separate words for:

• a / an
• the

That means мама can mean mom or the mom, depending on context; капусту can mean cabbage, the cabbage, or sometimes some cabbage, depending on the situation.

Learners coming from English often expect an article, but Russian simply does not need one.

How should морковью be pronounced?

A common learner difficulty is the ending -овью.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• морковью ≈ mar-KOV-yu

A few helpful points:

• the stress is on -ко́в-
• the soft sign ь softens the preceding consonant
• the final ю sounds like yu

You do not pronounce the soft sign itself as a separate sound; it only affects the consonant before it.

Could I say на выходных instead of по выходным?

Yes, in modern spoken Russian на выходных is also very common and natural.

But there is a nuance:

• по выходным strongly suggests habitually, every weekend / on weekends
• на выходных can mean this weekend or over the weekend(s) depending on context

So in a sentence about a regular habit, по выходным is especially good.

That is why it fits very well here.