Папа принёс зерно для кормушки, а мама сказала, что без воды птицы вряд ли останутся у окна.

Принёс is the masculine singular past tense form of принести (to bring).

• папа is grammatically treated as masculine, so the verb matches it: принёс
• Compare:
  • он принёс = he brought
  • она принесла = she brought
  • они принесли = they brought

This verb is also perfective, so it presents the action as a completed event: Dad brought the grain.

Here зерно is the direct object of принёс.

Because зерно is:

• neuter
• inanimate
• singular

its accusative form is the same as its nominative form:

• nominative: зерно
• accusative: зерно

So принёс зерно simply means brought grain / birdseed.

Also, зерно can function like a mass noun, so singular makes sense in Russian even where English might say some grain or birdseed.

Кормушки is in the genitive singular.

That is because it follows the preposition для (for), and для always requires the genitive.

So:

• кормушка = feeder
• для кормушки = for the feeder

This is a very common pattern:

• для мамы = for Mom
• для птиц = for the birds
• для окна = for the window

А often means more than just and. It frequently marks a contrast, switch of topic, or comparison.

Here:

• Папа принёс зерно...
• а мама сказала...

This feels like:

• Dad brought the grain, while Mom said...
• or Dad brought the grain, and Mom, in turn, said...

If you used и, it would sound more like a simple addition of events. А is natural because the sentence shifts from what Dad did to what Mom said.

Because the subject is мама, which is grammatically feminine.

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

• сказал = masculine
• сказала = feminine
• сказало = neuter
• сказали = plural

So:

• мама сказала = Mom said

Even though мама ends in -а, like many feminine nouns, it refers to a female person and takes the feminine past tense form.

Here что means that and introduces a subordinate clause.

So the structure is:

• мама сказала = Mom said
• что... = that...

Everything after что is the content of what Mom said:

• что без воды птицы вряд ли останутся у окна

This is very similar to English:

• Mom said that...

Russian often uses что in reported speech and after verbs like:

• сказать = to say
• думать = to think
• знать = to know
• понимать = to understand

Because in Russian, a subordinate clause introduced by что is normally separated by a comma.

So:

• мама сказала, что...

This is standard Russian punctuation. Russian uses commas quite consistently to mark subordinate clauses, often more consistently than English does.

There is also a comma before а, because а links two clauses:

• Папа принёс зерно для кормушки, а мама сказала...

Воды is in the genitive singular because the preposition без (without) always takes the genitive.

So:

• вода = water
• без воды = without water

This is a fixed rule:

• без сахара = without sugar
• без мамы = without Mom
• без птиц = without the birds

Even though English just uses without + noun, Russian requires the genitive after без.

Вряд ли is a very common expression meaning:

• hardly
• unlikely
• probably not

In this sentence it adds the idea that something is not expected:

• птицы вряд ли останутся... = the birds are unlikely to stay...

Grammatically, вряд ли is a fixed phrase. Learners usually just memorize it as a unit.

A few useful points:

• it often appears before the verb
• it expresses doubt or low probability
• it is very common in everyday speech and writing

Examples:

• Я вряд ли пойду. = I’ll probably not go.
• Он вряд ли знает. = He probably doesn’t know.

Останутся is the 3rd person plural future form of остаться (to remain / stay).

It agrees with птицы (birds), which is plural:

• птица останется = the bird will stay
• птицы останутся = the birds will stay

Because остаться is a perfective verb, its future is formed with one word:

• остаться → останусь, останешься, останется, останутся

This often confuses learners, because in English we use will stay, but in Russian perfective verbs form the future without быть.

Also, the perfective verb fits well here because the idea is whether the birds will end up staying / remain by the window.

Here окна is in the genitive singular because of the preposition у.

In this sentence, у means something like:

• by
• near
• beside

So:

• у окна = by the window / near the window

This is different from some other location expressions:

• в окне = in the window
• на окне = on the windowsill / on the window area
• у окна = by the window

So if the birds are gathering near the window, у окна is the natural choice.

Because птицы is the subject of the subordinate clause.

The clause is:

• без воды птицы вряд ли останутся у окна

Even though it begins with без воды (without water), that phrase is just an adverbial/prepositional phrase. The actual subject is still птицы, so it stays in the nominative plural.

You can think of the structure as:

• [Without water], [the birds] [are unlikely to stay] [by the window].

Russian word order is flexible, so the sentence starts with без воды to highlight the condition.

Yes. Russian word order is fairly flexible, and the core meaning would stay the same.

For example, you could also say:

• ...что птицы без воды вряд ли останутся у окна.
• ...что без воды вряд ли птицы останутся у окна.

But the original order:

• что без воды птицы вряд ли останутся у окна

sounds natural because it emphasizes without water early, as an important condition.

So the order is not random; it helps guide emphasis and information flow.

Yes. Принёс comes from принести, which is built from нести (to carry / bring) with the prefix при-.

This verb family has some stem changes, so the forms can look irregular:

• нести = to carry
• принести = to bring
• past masculine: принёс
• past feminine: принесла
• past plural: принесли

So the difference between принёс and forms like принесла is normal for this verb.

This is worth memorizing as a high-frequency pattern rather than trying to predict every form from scratch.