Пока няня укачивает малыша, мама готовит ужин.

Here пока means while.

So Пока няня укачивает малыша, мама готовит ужин means While the nanny is rocking the baby, Mom is making dinner.

A learner may know пока as:

• for now
• bye / see you

But in this sentence it is a conjunction meaning while and introduces a subordinate clause.

Russian does not have a separate tense form like the English present continuous.

So Russian often uses the present tense of an imperfective verb where English uses:

• rocks
• is rocking
• makes
• is making

In this sentence:

• укачивает = is rocking / rocks
• готовит = is making / cooks

Because the context shows ongoing simultaneous actions, English usually translates them with is rocking and is making, but Russian just uses the normal present tense.

Both verbs are in the 3rd person singular present form.

That is because the subjects are:

• няня = one nanny
• мама = one mother

So the verbs must also be singular:

• няня укачивает
• мама готовит

The endings here show person and number, not gender.

This is important: in the present tense, Russian verbs do not show masculine/feminine gender. Gender shows up in the past tense, not the present.

For example:

• мама готовит = Mom is cooking
• папа готовит = Dad is cooking

The verb form is the same.

Because малыша is the accusative singular form.

The word малыш is the direct object of укачивает:

• укачивает кого? → малыша

Since малыш is a masculine animate noun, its accusative singular looks like the genitive singular:

• nominative: малыш
• accusative: малыша

This is a very common Russian pattern:

• Я вижу брата
• Она любит сына
• Няня укачивает малыша

If it were an inanimate masculine noun, the accusative would usually look like the nominative instead.

Укачивать means something like:

• to rock
• to soothe by rocking
• to lull

In this sentence, it usually means the nanny is gently rocking the baby, probably to calm him or help him fall asleep.

A useful point: this verb can also have another meaning in other contexts, related to motion making someone feel sick, but here that is definitely not the meaning. Here it is the child-care meaning: rocking a baby.

Because Пока няня укачивает малыша is a subordinate clause, and Russian normally separates subordinate clauses from the main clause with a comma.

So the structure is:

• Пока няня укачивает малыша, = subordinate clause
• мама готовит ужин. = main clause

This is very normal Russian punctuation.

You could also reverse the order:

• Мама готовит ужин, пока няня укачивает малыша.

And there would still be a comma.

Yes. Russian word order is more flexible than English word order.

The given sentence is neutral and natural:

• Пока няня укачивает малыша, мама готовит ужин.

But you could also say:

• Мама готовит ужин, пока няня укачивает малыша.

Both mean basically the same thing.

The difference is mainly in emphasis or what the speaker wants to present first. Putting the пока clause first sets the scene first: while the nanny is doing this...

Because готовить ужин means to make/cook dinner, not to eat dinner.

Compare:

• готовить ужин = to prepare dinner
• ужинать = to have/eat dinner

So:

• мама готовит ужин = Mom is making dinner
• мама ужинает = Mom is eating dinner

This is a very useful collocation to remember:

• готовить завтрак
• готовить обед
• готовить ужин

Because in Russian, many feminine nouns end in -а or -я.

Here:

• няня = nanny
• мама = mom

Both are feminine nouns.

A learner may wonder whether няня is unusual because of the -я ending. It is still a normal noun pattern, just with its own declension details.

Also, although these nouns are feminine, remember that the present-tense verbs do not show feminine gender:

• няня укачивает
• мама готовит

You only clearly see feminine verb agreement in the past tense:

• няня укачивала
• мама готовила

Yes, both are imperfective:

• укачивать → укачивает
• готовить → готовит

That matters because the sentence describes ongoing processes happening at the same time.

Imperfective is the normal choice for:

• actions in progress
• repeated or habitual actions
• background actions
• simultaneous actions

That is exactly what is happening here: one action is going on while another action is going on.

If you used perfective verbs, the sentence would sound different and would focus more on completion rather than process.

It can be understood either way, depending on context.

It can mean:

1. Right now / in this situation
   While the nanny is rocking the baby, Mom is making dinner.

2. A typical repeated situation
   Whenever / while the nanny rocks the baby, Mom makes dinner.

Because Russian present imperfective can describe both an action happening now and a habitual or repeated action, context decides which meaning is intended.

Without extra context, many people will first understand it as a current scene.

Because пока can mean different things depending on context.

It can mean:

• while
• until
• for now
• bye

Here it clearly means while, because both clauses describe actions happening at the same time:

• the nanny is rocking the baby
• the mother is making dinner

If it meant until, the sentence structure and meaning would be different. For example:

• Подожди, пока мама приготовит ужин.
  Wait until Mom finishes making dinner.

So with пока, you always need to look at the whole sentence, not just the single word.