Я только что купила новую пижаму, а маме подарила мягкий халат.

Because Russian past-tense verbs show gender in the singular. The endings -ла tell you the speaker is female: я купила, я подарила.

A male speaker would say купил and подарил instead.

Купила and подарила are perfective verbs. They present the actions as completed, single events: she bought something, and she gave something.

If you used покупала or дарила, the focus would be more on process, repetition, or background context rather than one finished action.

Только что is a very common fixed expression meaning just now or have just.

So Я только что купила... means I just bought... It usually goes near the verb it modifies.

Strictly speaking, it is attached to the first clause, so it most directly modifies купила.

In real context, a listener might understand both actions as part of the same recent situation, but grammatically только что is stated only with the first verb. If you wanted to make it clearly apply to both actions, you would normally repeat it or rephrase.

In Russian, пижама is often a singular noun meaning one pajama set. So купила новую пижаму is perfectly normal.

English treats pajamas as a plural-looking word, but Russian does not have to match that pattern. If you were talking about several pajama sets, then you could use the plural пижамы.

Because пижаму is the direct object of купила, so it is in the accusative case.

Since пижама is a feminine singular noun, its accusative singular form is пижаму. The adjective must agree with it, so новая becomes новую.

So:

• nominative: новая пижама
• accusative: новую пижаму

Because маме is the recipient of the gift: she gave the bathrobe to Mom.

Russian normally uses the dative case for the person who receives something:

• дать маме
• подарить маме
• сказать маме

The base form is мама, and the dative singular is маме.

No. Russian often expresses to someone with the dative case alone, without any preposition.

So маме подарила халат literally means gave Mom a bathrobe or gave a bathrobe to Mom.

If you said для мамы, that would mean for Mom, which is slightly different in meaning. It suggests intended purpose or destination, not necessarily that the giving already happened.

Because халат is a masculine inanimate noun, and masculine inanimate nouns keep the same form in the accusative as in the nominative.

So:

• nominative: мягкий халат
• accusative: мягкий халат

That is why it looks unchanged.

For comparison, masculine animate nouns do change in the accusative:

• nominative: новый учитель
• accusative: нового учителя

Russian often leaves out subject pronouns when the subject is already clear from context or from the verb form.

Here, after Я только что купила..., it is obvious that подарила has the same subject, so repeating я is unnecessary.

You could say а я маме подарила..., but that would add extra emphasis or contrast.

А often links two related pieces of information while also showing a contrast, comparison, or shift of topic.

Here it feels like:

• I bought myself a new pajama set, and as for Mom, I gave her a soft bathrobe.

So а is very natural because the sentence sets the two actions side by side.

If you used и, it would sound more like a simple list of actions, with less contrast. Also, Russian normally puts a comma before а when it joins two clauses, which is why the comma is there.

Yes. Russian word order is flexible, and changing it changes emphasis more than basic meaning.

This version is natural because:

• Я introduces the speaker
• только что comes near купила
• маме appears early in the second clause to mark the recipient
• мягкий халат comes at the end, where new information often goes

Other word orders are possible, but they would sound slightly different in focus or emphasis.