Когда кошка хочет есть, она громко мяукает.

Когда means when.

In this sentence, it introduces a time clause:

• Когда кошка хочет есть = When the cat wants to eat

So the whole sentence has two parts:

• Когда кошка хочет есть — the time/situation
• она громко мяукает — what happens then

Russian uses a comma to separate a subordinate clause from the main clause.

Here:

• Когда кошка хочет есть = subordinate clause
• она громко мяукает = main clause

So the comma is required:

• Когда кошка хочет есть, она громко мяукает.

This is very similar to English When the cat wants to eat, it meows loudly, where a comma is also common when the when-clause comes first.

Yes. Хочет есть literally means wants to eat.

Russian often uses this expression to mean is hungry or feels like eating, especially in everyday speech.

Breakdown:

• хочет = wants
• есть = to eat

So:

• Кошка хочет есть = The cat wants to eat / The cat is hungry

A learner might expect голодна or голодная, and those are also possible in other contexts, but хочет есть is very natural and common.

Yes. In this sentence, есть means to eat.

That can confuse learners because есть also has another common meaning: there is / there are.

Here it is clearly the infinitive to eat, because it follows хочет:

• хочет есть = wants to eat

So this is not the there is meaning.

Кошка is in the nominative case because it is the subject of the clause.

It is the one doing the action:

• the cat wants to eat
• the cat meows

So the basic dictionary form is used:

• кошка = cat

If the cat were an object, another case might appear, but here it is the subject.

Она means she, but in Russian it is also used for nouns of feminine grammatical gender.

Кошка is a feminine noun, so the pronoun that matches it is она.

So:

• кошка → feminine
• она → feminine pronoun

In English, we often say it for an animal, but Russian usually follows grammatical gender much more directly.

Also, кошка specifically means a female cat. If you wanted male cat, you would usually say кот.

Usually, in a neutral sentence like this, она is natural and expected.

• Когда кошка хочет есть, она громко мяукает.

If you removed it:

• Когда кошка хочет есть, громко мяукает.

that sounds less complete and less natural on its own, because the main clause would have no explicit subject. Russian can sometimes omit subjects, but here keeping она is the normal choice.

Громко means loudly.

It is an adverb, and many Russian adverbs are formed from adjectives:

• громкий = loud
• громко = loudly

So:

• громко мяукает = meows loudly

The -о ending is very common for adverbs of this type.

Мяукает means meows.

It comes from the verb мяукать = to meow.

Here it is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense

So:

• я мяукаю = I meow
• ты мяукаешь = you meow
• она мяукает = she/it meows

Because the subject is кошка / она, the form мяукает is used.

Because the verb хотеть (to want) is irregular.

The correct 3rd person singular form is:

• он / она хочет = he / she wants

Not all Russian verbs follow the most predictable pattern, and хотеть is one of the common irregular ones.

Useful forms:

• я хочу = I want
• ты хочешь = you want
• он / она хочет = he / she wants
• мы хотим = we want
• вы хотите = you want
• они хотят = they want

Yes, the word order can be changed, but the original version is very natural.

Original:

• Когда кошка хочет есть, она громко мяукает.

This emphasizes the when-situation first: When the cat wants to eat...

You could also say:

• Кошка громко мяукает, когда хочет есть.

That means essentially the same thing: The cat meows loudly when it wants to eat.

Russian word order is more flexible than English, but different orders can slightly change emphasis or style.

Strictly speaking, кошка is a female cat, while кот is a male cat.

However, in everyday speech, кошка is sometimes used more loosely when people are simply talking about a pet cat. Still, learners should remember the basic distinction:

• кот = male cat
• кошка = female cat

That is why the pronoun она fits naturally here.

It can be understood either way, depending on context.

Russian has no articles like a or the, so кошка can mean:

• the cat
• a cat

In context, this sentence might mean:

• When the cat wants to eat, it meows loudly — a specific cat
• or more generally, When a cat wants to eat, it meows loudly

You learn which one is meant from the situation, not from an article.

Yes. The present tense here describes a habitual or general fact.

• хочет = wants
• мяукает = meows

This does not have to mean only right now. It can also mean something that usually happens:

• When the cat gets hungry, it meows loudly.

Russian present tense often works this way for general truths, habits, and repeated behavior.