Стоит мне открыть холодильник, как брат спрашивает, есть ли там банан или груша.

Yes, стоить often means to cost, but in this pattern it has a different meaning.

The construction стоит + dative + infinitive, как... means:

• it only takes someone to do X for Y to happen
• as soon as someone does X, Y happens
• no sooner does someone do X than Y happens

So:

• Стоит мне открыть холодильник, как... = As soon as I open the fridge, ... = The moment I open the fridge, ...

This is a very common literary/neutral Russian pattern.

Because this construction uses the dative case for the person involved:

• стоит мне...
• стоит тебе...
• стоит ему...

So мне is not the subject in the usual nominative sense; it is the person for whom the action is enough to trigger the next event.

Compare:

• Мне нужно уйти = I need to leave
• Мне трудно понять = It is hard for me to understand
• Стоит мне открыть холодильник... = As soon as I open the fridge...

This dative + infinitive pattern is very common in Russian.

Because after стоит мне in this structure, Russian uses an infinitive:

• Стоит мне позвонить, как он отвечает.
• Стоит ей выйти, как начинается дождь.

So открыть is the action that triggers the next event.

It is not a finite verb here; the finite verb is стоит.

Because открыть is perfective, and here Russian is referring to a single completed action: to open the fridge.

In this pattern, the perfective infinitive is very natural when the idea is:

• one completed action happens,
• and immediately another action follows.

So:

• Стоит мне открыть холодильник... = As soon as I open the fridge...

If you used открывать, it would sound less natural here because открывать suggests an ongoing, repeated, or process-like action rather than one completed trigger event.

Here как does not mean how. In this sentence it is part of a fixed paired structure:

• стоит ..., как ...

Together, this means something like:

• as soon as ...
• no sooner ... than ...

So in this sentence:

• Стоит мне открыть холодильник, как брат спрашивает...

the как introduces the result or immediate follow-up event.

Because Russian punctuation separates the two parts of this paired construction:

• Стоит мне открыть холодильник, как брат спрашивает...

The first part is the trigger:

• Стоит мне открыть холодильник

The second part is what happens immediately after:

• как брат спрашивает...

So the comma is required.

It is in the accusative. The reason it looks unchanged is that for many inanimate masculine nouns, the accusative singular is the same as the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: холодильник
• accusative: холодильник

That is why you see:

• открыть холодильник = to open the fridge

Compare with a feminine noun, where the accusative would look different:

• открыть дверь = to open the door

Because Russian often uses the present tense for habitual or repeated actions.

This sentence describes a repeated situation:

• every time I open the fridge,
• my brother asks whether there is a banana or a pear there.

So брат спрашивает means:

• my brother asks
• or more naturally in English, my brother always asks / keeps asking

It is not necessarily talking about one event happening right now.

Ли is a particle used to mean whether or to turn something into an indirect yes/no question.

So:

• есть ли там банан или груша = whether there is a banana or a pear there

A very important rule:

• ли usually comes right after the word it relates to most directly.

Here it follows есть:

• есть ли... = whether there is...

Other examples:

• Я не знаю, придёт ли он. = I don’t know whether he will come.
• Спроси, дома ли она. = Ask whether she is at home.

Because ли usually comes after the key word, not before it.

So the normal order is:

• есть ли
• знает ли
• будет ли
• правда ли

Not:

• ли есть
• ли знает

You can think of ли as attaching itself to the word that carries the yes/no-question focus.

Because in Russian, indirect yes/no questions are normally formed with ли, not with a separate word exactly equivalent to English if.

So English:

• He asks if there is a banana or a pear there.
• He asks whether there is a banana or a pear there.

Russian:

• Он спрашивает, есть ли там банан или груша.

In many contexts, whether is actually the better English match for ли.

Russian often uses singular nouns when talking about whether there is an item of a certain type available.

So:

• есть ли там банан или груша = is there a banana or a pear there?

This does not mean there can only ever be one in the fridge; it just asks whether such an item is there.

Russian has no articles, so singular nouns often do the work of English a/an.

Russian often omits possessive words like my, your, his when the meaning is obvious from context.

So:

• брат спрашивает can mean my brother asks if the speaker is clearly talking about their own brother.

Russian prefers not to repeat possessives unless they are needed for clarity or emphasis.

Compare:

• Мама звонила. = Mom called.
• У брата машина сломалась. = My brother’s car broke down. / Brother’s car broke down. depending on context

Yes. A simpler, more straightforward version would be something like:

• Когда я открываю холодильник, брат спрашивает, есть ли там банан или груша. = When I open the fridge, my brother asks whether there is a banana or a pear there.

Or:

• Как только я открываю холодильник, брат спрашивает... = As soon as I open the fridge, my brother asks...

The original version with Стоит мне..., как... is a bit more expressive. It emphasizes how immediately and predictably the brother asks.