Я кашлянул и взял салфетку.

Yes, Russian often omits subject pronouns when the subject is obvious from the verb form or context. So Кашлянул и взял салфетку can be natural in context.

Here, я is included for clarity, emphasis, or simply because the speaker chooses to say it. It is not wrong at all. Including я can make the sentence feel a bit more explicit, especially if the speaker is introducing their own action.

Кашлянул is the perfective form and usually means gave a cough / coughed once — a single, brief action.

Кашлял is imperfective and suggests a process, repeated coughing, or just the general fact of coughing.

So:

• Я кашлянул = I coughed once
• Я кашлял = I was coughing / I coughed repeatedly

In this sentence, кашлянул fits because it presents one completed action followed by another completed action: coughed and took a tissue.

For the same reason: взял is perfective and means took as a completed action.

Compare:

• брал = was taking / used to take / took repeatedly depending on context
• взял = took (completed, one-time result)

In Я кашлянул и взял салфетку, both verbs describe short completed actions in sequence, so perfective verbs are very natural.

That is the past tense marker. In Russian, past tense is formed differently from English: it does not use a separate word like did. Instead, the verb itself changes form.

For masculine singular:

• кашлянуть → кашлянул
• взять → взял

The past tense also agrees with gender and number:

• masculine: кашлянул, взял
• feminine: кашлянула, взяла
• neuter: кашлянуло, взяло
• plural: кашлянули, взяли

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

Я кашлянула и взяла салфетку.

Because it is the direct object of взял (took what?), so it goes into the accusative case.

Салфетка is a feminine noun, and feminine nouns ending in -а usually change to -у in the singular accusative:

• nominative: салфетка
• accusative: салфетку

So:

• Это салфетка. = This is a tissue/napkin.
• Я взял салфетку. = I took a tissue/napkin.

It means and, but in a sentence like this it naturally suggests sequence because the verbs describe actions one after the other.

So Я кашлянул и взял салфетку is understood as:

1. I coughed
2. then I took a tissue

Russian does not need a separate word for then here, because the order is clear from the context and the normal interpretation of the two perfective verbs.

Yes. Russian word order is flexible, though different orders can slightly change emphasis.

The neutral order here is:

Я кашлянул и взял салфетку.

But you could also hear:

• Кашлянул я и взял салфетку. — unusual without special emphasis
• Я взял салфетку и кашлянул. — changes the order of events
• Салфетку я взял после того, как кашлянул. — emphasizes the tissue

So while Russian allows flexibility, the original version is the most straightforward and natural way to say it.

It can mean either napkin or tissue, depending on context.

Common possibilities:

• at the table: napkin
• when coughing or sneezing: often understood as tissue

Since the sentence includes coughing, English would often translate it as tissue, even though the Russian word itself is broader.

A few useful pronunciation points:

• кашлянул — the stress is on я: кашлЯнул
• взял — this is a one-syllable word, so the stress is naturally on that syllable
• салфетку — stress on е: салфЕтку

Also:

• вз at the start of взял can be tricky for English speakers because of the consonant cluster.
• In кашлянул, the ль is soft.

A rough guide:

• кашлянул ≈ kash-LYA-nool
• взял ≈ vzyal
• салфетку ≈ sal-FYET-koo

Yes, but the meaning changes.

Я кашлял и взял салфетку suggests something more like:

• I was coughing and took a tissue
• or I had been coughing and took a tissue

That version focuses on coughing as a process, not a single cough.

By contrast:

Я кашлянул и взял салфетку = I coughed once and took a tissue

So both are possible, but they describe different situations.

Yes: it is a very common Russian pattern for narrating short completed actions.

Кашлянул + взял gives a compact, event-by-event feel:

• one completed action
• followed by another completed action

This is very natural in storytelling and everyday narration. It is similar to English using simple past for a chain of events, but in Russian the perfective aspect is especially important for showing that each action happened as a complete event.