Я встретил соседку в подъезде и дал ей ключ.

Встретил is the past tense masculine singular form of the verb.

In Russian past tense, the verb agrees with the gender and number of the subject:

• я встретил = I met (said by a man)
• я встретила = I met (said by a woman)

So this sentence sounds like it is being said by a male speaker. If the speaker were female, it would be:

• Я встретила соседку в подъезде и дала ей ключ.

Notice that дал would also change to дала.

Because соседку is in the accusative case.

The verb встретить takes a direct object — the person you met. In Russian, direct objects often go into the accusative:

• соседка = neighbor (nominative, dictionary form)
• соседку = neighbor (accusative)

Since соседка is a feminine noun ending in -а, its accusative singular changes to -у:

• соседка → соседку

So:

• Я встретил соседку = I met my/the female neighbor

Yes. Соседка specifically means a female neighbor.

Compare:

• сосед = male neighbor
• соседка = female neighbor

So this sentence tells you that the person met was a woman.

If it were a male neighbor, the sentence would be:

• Я встретил соседа в подъезде и дал ему ключ.

Because after в when talking about location (where?), Russian uses the prepositional case.

Here, в подъезде means in the entrance / in the apartment building entryway / stairwell area.

The noun changes like this:

• подъезд = entryway, building entrance
• в подъезде = in the entryway

So:

• в + prepositional = location
• в + accusative = motion into something

Compare:

• Я был в подъезде. = I was in the entryway.
• Я вошёл в подъезд. = I entered the entryway.

Подъезд is a very common Russian word for the entrance section of an apartment building — the shared entry area, often including the door, lobby, stairwell, and access to apartments.

It does not usually mean just any random “porch” or “hallway.” In many contexts, it refers to the part of a multi-unit residential building that people enter from outside.

So в подъезде often means something like:

• in the building entrance
• in the entryway
• in the stairwell/lobby area

The exact English translation depends on context.

Because дать (to give) takes:

• the thing given in the accusative
• the recipient in the dative

So in this sentence:

• ключ = the thing being given
• ей = to her

Russian uses the dative for the person who receives something:

• я дал ей ключ = I gave her a key / the key

Compare the pronoun forms:

• она = she
• её = her (accusative/genitive)
• ей = to her (dative)

So её would be wrong here because the meaning is not just her, but to her.

Ключ is also a direct object, so it is in the accusative case. But for many masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative singular looks exactly the same as the nominative.

So:

• ключ = key (nominative)
• ключ = key (accusative)

No visible change happens, but the case is still accusative because of its role in the sentence.

Compare with a feminine noun, where you can see the change more clearly:

• книга = book
• я дал книгу = I gave a/the book

Because дал is the perfective past form of дать, and it expresses a completed action: the speaker actually handed over the key.

Russian often distinguishes between:

• perfective = completed, one whole event
• imperfective = ongoing, repeated, habitual, or focusing on process

Here:

• дал = gave / handed over (completed event)
• давал = was giving, used to give, or gave in a repeated/process sense

In this sentence, the natural meaning is a single finished action, so дал is the normal choice.

For the same reason: встретил is perfective, and it refers to a single completed event — I ran into / met the neighbor.

Compare:

• встретил = met, encountered once
• встречал = was meeting / used to meet / met repeatedly / had experience meeting

In this sentence, the speaker is narrating two completed events in sequence:

1. met the neighbor
2. gave her the key

So the perfective verbs встретил and дал fit very well.

Russian has no articles like a/an/the, and possessive words such as my are often omitted when the meaning is obvious from context.

So:

• соседку could mean the neighbor, a neighbor, or my neighbor, depending on context
• ключ could mean a key, the key, or my/the key

Russian relies much more on context than English does for this.

If needed, Russian can be more specific:

• мою соседку = my neighbor
• ключ от квартиры = the apartment key
• этот ключ = this key

But in many natural sentences, speakers simply leave that information unstated.

Yes. Russian word order is more flexible than English because case endings show grammatical roles.

The neutral order here is:

• Я встретил соседку в подъезде и дал ей ключ.

But other orders are possible, for example:

• В подъезде я встретил соседку и дал ей ключ.
• Я дал ей ключ и встретил соседку в подъезде. (changes the sequence/emphasis and may sound odd if the events really happened in the original order)
• Соседку я встретил в подъезде и дал ей ключ.

Even though word order can change, it is not random. Different orders change emphasis, topic, and what sounds natural in context.

Grammatically, yes, ей just means to her. But in this sentence, the most natural interpretation is that it refers to соседку, because she is the nearest and most obvious female referent.

So the sentence is naturally understood as:

• I met the female neighbor in the entryway and gave *her the key.*

If the speaker meant some other woman, Russian would usually make that clearer from context or by naming her.

Yes, it is perfectly natural.

It is a straightforward example of:

• first-person past narration
• two completed actions linked by и (and)
• correct case use:
  • соседку = accusative
  • в подъезде = prepositional
  • ей = dative
  • ключ = accusative, same form as nominative

So it is a very useful sentence for seeing how Russian case and aspect work together in ordinary speech.