Кошка поцарапала мне руку.

Because the subject is кошка (cat), which is a feminine noun in Russian.

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

• masculine: поцарапал
• feminine: поцарапала
• neuter: поцарапало
• plural: поцарапали

So:

• Кошка поцарапала... = The cat scratched...
• Кот поцарапал... = The male cat scratched...

Мне is the dative case of я (I).

Here it means something like to me and marks the person affected. Russian often uses the dative with body parts or personal possessions in situations like this.

So:

• мне = to me / for me
• меня would be accusative or genitive, and it would not fit this structure
• я is nominative, used for the subject, so it also would not fit

In this sentence, мне shows whose hand was scratched, or more literally, the cat scratched the hand to me.

Because руку is the accusative singular form of рука.

Рука is a feminine noun, and here it is the direct object of the verb поцарапала. The cat scratched what? — руку.

For many feminine nouns ending in -а, the accusative singular changes to -у:

• рука → руку
• книга → книгу
• мама → маму

So:

• рука = nominative, dictionary form
• руку = accusative, used as the object

It can, but Russian often prefers a different structure with body parts.

Instead of saying my hand, Russian very often says:

• мне руку
• literally: to me the hand

This is very natural when it is already obvious whose body part it is.

So:

• Кошка поцарапала мне руку. = natural, everyday Russian
• Кошка поцарапала мою руку. = also grammatical, but it puts more emphasis on my hand

Russian often avoids possessive words like мой when ownership is obvious, especially with body parts, clothing, and close personal belongings.

Both are correct, but they feel a little different.

Кошка поцарапала мне руку

• very natural
• focuses on the event affecting me
• common with body parts

Кошка поцарапала мою руку

• also correct
• more directly says my hand
• can sound a bit more emphatic or contrastive, for example if you are distinguishing it from someone else’s hand

Sometimes both can even appear together:

• Кошка поцарапала мне мою руку would usually sound unnecessary or awkward in normal speech, because Russian does not usually need both markers here.

It is:

• past tense
• feminine singular
• perfective

The base verb pair is:

• царапать = imperfective, to scratch
• поцарапать = perfective, to scratch in the sense of a completed act

So поцарапала suggests a completed event: the cat scratched the hand.

If you used царапала, it would usually suggest a process, repeated action, or background description, depending on context.

Compare:

• Кошка поцарапала мне руку. = The cat scratched my hand.
• Кошка царапала мне руку. = The cat was scratching / kept scratching my hand.

Here по- helps form the perfective verb поцарапать from царапать.

This does not always translate directly as a separate word in English. Its job is mainly grammatical: it helps show that the action is viewed as complete.

So the pair is:

• царапать = imperfective
• поцарапать = perfective

In this sentence, the perfective form fits because it describes a single completed result: the cat scratched the hand.

No, Russian word order is fairly flexible because the cases show the grammatical roles.

The neutral order here is:

• Кошка поцарапала мне руку.

But other orders are possible:

• Мне кошка поцарапала руку.
  Emphasizes me more.
• Руку мне поцарапала кошка.
  Emphasizes the hand or sets it up as the topic.
• Кошка мне руку поцарапала.
  Also natural in speech, with slightly different emphasis.

The basic meaning stays the same because:

• кошка is nominative = subject
• мне is dative = affected person
• руку is accusative = direct object

Yes, very common.

Russian often uses:

• dative of person
• plus accusative of body part or possession

Examples:

• Он сломал мне палец. = He broke my finger.
• Врач посмотрел мне горло. = The doctor looked at my throat.
• Она помыла ребёнку руки. = She washed the child’s hands.

This pattern is especially common when something happens to a person’s body part, clothing, or closely associated possession.

Sometimes, yes.

Russian рука can refer to the hand or the arm, depending on context. Very often English would translate it as hand, but in some situations arm may sound more natural.

If Russian specifically wants to say hand as the part below the wrist, it can use кисть, though that is more anatomical and less common in everyday speech.

So in this sentence, the best translation depends on context, but hand is the most likely everyday choice.

The stress is:

• Ко́шка
• поцара́пала
• мне́
• ру́ку

So it is pronounced approximately:

КО-shka pa-tsa-RA-pa-la mnye ROO-koo

A rougher stress guide:

• Ко́шка = stress on the first syllable
• поцара́пала = stress on ра
• мне́ = the only syllable
• ру́ку = stress on the first syllable

No, not by itself.

The sentence specifically includes руку, so it means the cat scratched the hand / arm.

If you wanted to say simply The cat scratched me, Russian would be:

• Кошка меня поцарапала.

That uses меня because now me is the direct object of the verb.

So compare:

• Кошка меня поцарапала. = The cat scratched me.
• Кошка поцарапала мне руку. = The cat scratched my hand.