На ужин мама жарит кабачок и баклажан.

На ужин is a very common Russian expression meaning for dinner.

Grammatically, на here is used with the accusative case to express purpose or intended use:

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

So На ужин мама жарит кабачок и баклажан literally feels like For dinner, Mom is frying zucchini and eggplant.

This is more natural in Russian than trying to say something like для ужина in this context. Для ужина is possible in some situations, but на ужин is the standard everyday phrase for meals.

Because after на in this meaning, Russian uses the accusative case, and ужин is a masculine inanimate noun.

For masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative singular is the same as the nominative singular:

• nominative: ужин
• accusative: ужин

So the form does change by case in grammar, but it just happens to look the same here.

Russian has no articles, so there is no direct equivalent of a, an, or the.

That means:

• мама can mean Mom, my mom, or the mother, depending on context
• кабачок can mean a zucchini or the zucchini
• баклажан can mean an eggplant or the eggplant

Russian relies on context, word order, and situation instead of articles.

Жарит is the 3rd person singular present tense form of жарить.

So:

• жарить — to fry
• я жарю — I fry / am frying
• ты жаришь — you fry / are frying
• он / она жарит — he / she fries / is frying

Since the subject is мама (Mom), you need она жарит → мама жарит.

In English, this could be translated as either:

• Mom fries...
• Mom is frying...

Russian present tense often covers both simple present and present continuous, depending on context.

Жарить is the imperfective verb, while пожарить is the perfective partner.

Very roughly:

• жарить focuses on the process, repeated action, or general activity
• пожарить focuses on completing the action

In a sentence like this, мама жарит naturally describes what she is doing right now or what she is making for dinner. That is why the imperfective verb is very normal here.

A perfective verb like пожарить does not have a true present tense. Its present-looking forms usually refer to the future:

• мама пожарит = Mom will fry

So if the sentence means something happening now, жарит is the correct choice.

They are in the accusative case because they are direct objects of жарит, but both are masculine inanimate singular nouns.

For masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative singular is identical to the nominative singular:

• кабачок → кабачок
• баклажан → баклажан

So they are in the accusative grammatically, even though the form does not visibly change.

Compare that with an animate masculine noun:

• nominative: кот
• accusative: кота

That visible change happens because кот is animate, but кабачок and баклажан are inanimate.

Russian often uses the singular when talking about food items as ingredients or as whole items being prepared.

So кабачок и баклажан can mean:

• one zucchini and one eggplant literally
• or, more generally, zucchini and eggplant as the things being cooked

This is very natural in Russian. The singular often presents them as individual ingredients rather than an abstract mass.

If the speaker wanted to emphasize multiple items, they could use the plural:

• кабачки и баклажаны

But the singular version is completely normal.

The word order is fairly flexible.

На ужин мама жарит кабачок и баклажан is natural and emphasizes for dinner at the beginning.

Other possible orders include:

• Мама жарит кабачок и баклажан на ужин.
• Кабачок и баклажан мама жарит на ужин.

These all mean basically the same thing, but the emphasis changes:

• starting with На ужин highlights the meal
• starting with Мама highlights who is doing it
• starting with Кабачок и баклажан highlights what is being cooked

Russian word order often reflects focus and information structure more than strict grammatical necessity.

In many everyday contexts, мама is naturally understood as Mom or my mom, especially in a simple family-context sentence like this.

Russian often omits possessives where English would use them:

• Мама дома. — Mom is at home.
• Папа работает. — Dad is working.

So even though there is no word for my, the natural interpretation is usually my mom unless context suggests otherwise.

Жарить usually means to fry, to pan-fry, or more broadly to cook with high heat, depending on context.

In cooking contexts, it often implies:

• frying in a pan
• cooking in oil
• browning something over heat

It is more specific than готовить (to cook / prepare food), which is very general.

So:

• мама готовит ужин = Mom is cooking dinner
• мама жарит кабачок и баклажан = Mom is frying zucchini and eggplant

The main stress is:

На у́жин ма́ма жа́рит кабачо́к и баклажа́н.

A rough pronunciation guide:

• На у́жин — na OO-zhin
• ма́ма — MA-ma
• жа́рит — ZHA-rit
• кабачо́к — ka-ba-CHOK
• и — ee
• баклажа́н — ba-kla-ZHAN

A couple of useful notes:

• ж sounds like the s in measure
• unstressed o is often pronounced more like a in connected speech

It can mean either, depending on context.

Because жарит is an imperfective present tense form, it may mean:

• Mom is frying zucchini and eggplant for dinner — right now
• Mom fries zucchini and eggplant for dinner — habitually / as a usual choice

In real life, context usually makes it clear. If this is a standalone sentence, many learners will first understand it as something happening now, but both readings are grammatically possible.