На обед бабушка приготовила плов с говядиной, а вечером разогрела одну котлету для меня.

Because the subject is бабушка, which is grammatically feminine singular.

In the Russian past tense, verbs agree with the subject in gender and number:

• masculine: приготовил
• feminine: приготовила
• neuter: приготовило
• plural: приготовили

So:

• бабушка приготовила
• бабушка разогрела

both use the feminine past form.

They are perfective because the sentence describes completed actions:

• she cooked the pilaf
• she reheated one cutlet

The focus is on the result, not the process.

Compare:

• бабушка приготовила плов = she cooked the pilaf (finished it)
• бабушка готовила плов = she was cooking / used to cook pilaf

And:

• разогрела = reheated it fully, as a completed event
• разогревала = was reheating / used to reheat

This sentence tells us what she actually did on that occasion, so perfective is natural.

На обед is a common idiomatic expression meaning for lunch.

Here, обед is in the accusative case after на. The phrase is not really about physical location; it means something like for the lunch meal.

Very common similar expressions are:

• на завтрак = for breakfast
• на обед = for lunch
• на ужин = for dinner

So На обед бабушка приготовила плов means For lunch, grandmother cooked pilaf.

Вечером is an instrumental form used adverbially, and it means in the evening / during the evening.

Russian often uses certain nouns in the instrumental case as time expressions without a preposition:

• утром = in the morning
• днём = in the daytime
• вечером = in the evening
• ночью = at night

So:

• а вечером разогрела... = and in the evening she reheated...

This is just a very standard time expression.

Because плов is a masculine inanimate noun, and in the singular, the accusative often looks exactly like the nominative.

The verb приготовила takes a direct object, so плов is in the accusative case. But for masculine inanimate nouns:

• nominative: плов
• accusative: плов

So the case is there grammatically, even though the form does not change.

After с meaning with, Russian usually uses the instrumental case.

So:

• говядина = beef
• с говядиной = with beef

That is why the ending changes to -ой here.

This phrase describes the pilaf:

• плов с говядиной = pilaf with beef

Other similar examples:

• чай с сахаром = tea with sugar
• суп с курицей = soup with chicken
• бутерброд с сыром = sandwich with cheese

Because котлету is the direct object of разогрела, so it must be in the accusative case. The numeral/adjective одну has to agree with it.

Base form:

• одна котлета = one cutlet

Accusative feminine singular:

• одну котлету

So in the sentence:

• разогрела одну котлету = reheated one cutlet

Both words change because both are feminine singular in the accusative.

Для меня means for me in the sense of intended for me / meant for me.

• для
  • genitive = for, intended for, for the benefit of
• меня is the genitive form of я

So:

• одну котлету для меня = one cutlet for me

Russian could also say:

• разогрела мне одну котлету

That version uses the dative мне and sounds more like reheated me a cutlet or reheated a cutlet for me as the recipient of the action.

So both are possible, but для меня emphasizes destination/purpose a bit more.

Because а is a coordinating conjunction, and in Russian it normally introduces a new clause or a contrasted part of the sentence.

Here it connects two actions:

• На обед бабушка приготовила плов с говядиной
• а вечером разогрела одну котлету для меня

The comma is required before а.

Also, а often suggests a contrast or shift:

• lunch vs. evening
• one action vs. another action

So the punctuation works the same way you would expect in a compound sentence.

Russian word order is much more flexible than English word order. The sentence starts with На обед because that sets the scene first: as for lunch.

Both of these are possible:

• На обед бабушка приготовила плов...
• Бабушка приготовила плов... на обед

The first version sounds more natural if the speaker wants to organize the sentence by time/topic first. Russian often puts known context or the time frame earlier in the sentence.

So the chosen order is natural and highlights:

1. lunch
2. grandmother
3. what she made

It can often be translated as and, but it is not exactly the same as и.

• и = plain and, simple addition
• а = and / while / whereas / but, often with contrast or a shift of focus

In this sentence, а marks a transition:

• For lunch she cooked pilaf,
• and then in the evening she reheated one cutlet for me.

So а works well because the second part contrasts with the first in time and content.

Not exactly. This is more a vocabulary/culture point than a grammar point.

Russian котлета often means a ground-meat patty or fried meat patty, not necessarily a thin sliced cutlet in the English sense.

So depending on context, котлета may be closer to:

• a meat patty
• a croquette-like meat cutlet
• sometimes just cutlet in translation

Learners often assume it means the exact same thing as English cutlet, but in everyday Russian food vocabulary it often refers to a different kind of dish.

You would usually use the imperfective verbs instead of the perfective ones.

For example:

• На обед бабушка готовила плов с говядиной, а вечером разогревала одну котлету для меня.

That would suggest something habitual, repeated, or descriptive, like Grandma would cook pilaf for lunch and reheat one cutlet for me in the evening.

So the contrast is:

• приготовила / разогрела = one completed occasion
• готовила / разогревала = repeated action, process, or background description