Она почувствовала неловкость и совсем растерялась, когда забыла имя новой коллеги.

Because the subject is она (she), and in the past tense Russian verbs agree with gender and number.

• masculine: почувствовал
• feminine: почувствовала
• neuter: почувствовало
• plural: почувствовали

So with она, the feminine ending -ла is required:

• Она почувствовала
• Она растерялась
• Она забыла

This is very different from English, where past tense verbs do not change for gender.

Почувствовала is perfective, while чувствовала is imperfective.

Here, почувствовала means she felt awkwardness at a particular moment — the feeling appeared or hit her.

• почувствовала = she felt / she became aware of the feeling
• чувствовала = she was feeling / she felt over a period of time

In this sentence, the idea is that she forgot the colleague’s name, and then she suddenly felt awkward. That is why perfective почувствовала fits well.

Неловкость means something like awkwardness, embarrassment, or discomfort in a social situation.

It does not usually mean physical clumsiness here. In this sentence, it refers to the emotional feeling of being uncomfortable or embarrassed after forgetting someone’s name.

So:

• почувствовала неловкость = felt awkward / felt embarrassed

Russian often uses a noun here where English might prefer an adjective or a different structure.

Yes, почувствовала неловкость is natural, but ей стало неловко is also very common and often sounds a bit more everyday.

Compare:

• Она почувствовала неловкость = she felt awkwardness / she felt embarrassed
• Ей стало неловко = she felt awkward / she became embarrassed

The second version is often more idiomatic in spoken Russian, but the sentence you have is still perfectly normal and clear.

Совсем here means completely, entirely, or sometimes really for emphasis.

So:

• совсем растерялась = became completely flustered / got totally confused

It strengthens the verb and shows that her reaction was strong.

Be careful: совсем can have different shades depending on context. Sometimes it means completely, and sometimes more like at all in negative sentences. Here it is an intensifier.

Not literally. Растерялась comes from растеряться, which means:

• to become confused
• to get flustered
• to lose one’s composure
• to not know what to do for a moment

So in this sentence, she did not become physically lost. She became mentally or socially unsettled.

A good natural translation is:

• she got flustered
• she became confused
• she was thrown off

Because it refers to a completed event: she forgot the name at that moment.

Russian often uses the perfective for single completed actions:

• забыла = forgot
• забывала = used to forget / was forgetting / forgot repeatedly

Here, the sentence describes one specific incident, so забыла is the right choice.

Because after имя (name), Russian usually puts the person in the genitive case.

So:

• имя коллеги = the colleague’s name / the name of the colleague
• имя новой коллеги = the new colleague’s name

Here:

• новой = genitive feminine singular of новая
• коллеги = genitive singular of коллега

Even though коллега often refers to a person of either sex, it declines like a feminine noun in this phrase because the colleague is female.

Because коллега is one of the nouns that has an -а ending and declines like a feminine noun, even though it can refer to either a man or a woman.

Examples:

• мой коллега = my male colleague
• моя коллега = my female colleague

In your sentence, it is новой коллеги, which clearly refers to a female colleague because of новой.

So the grammar follows the noun’s declension pattern, while adjectives and pronouns also reflect the actual meaning.

Russian does not have articles.

So имя новой коллеги could mean:

• the name of the new colleague
• a new colleague’s name
• the new colleague’s name

The exact meaning depends on context.

English learners often want to know where the is in Russian, but usually there is simply no separate word for it.

Because когда introduces a subordinate clause.

Main clause:

• Она почувствовала неловкость и совсем растерялась

Subordinate clause:

• когда забыла имя новой коллеги

In Russian, subordinate clauses are normally separated by commas, even where English sometimes might feel less strict.

So the comma is required here.

Yes, it could be rearranged, because Russian word order is more flexible than English word order. The original sentence is natural and neutral:

• Она почувствовала неловкость и совсем растерялась, когда забыла имя новой коллеги.

You could also say:

• Когда она забыла имя новой коллеги, она почувствовала неловкость и совсем растерялась.

Both are correct. The difference is mainly emphasis:

• original version: first states her reaction, then explains when it happened
• reordered version: first gives the event, then the reaction

Russian word order often changes focus rather than basic meaning.

Because the sentence describes two related reactions by the same person:

• she felt awkwardness
• she became flustered

The conjunction и simply joins them:

• почувствовала неловкость и совсем растерялась = felt awkward and got completely flustered

This is very normal in Russian. Since the subject она is the same for both verbs, it only needs to be said once.