Russian Word of the Day

One of the verbs that means ‘to follow’ in Russian is

In English the verb takes a direct object. In Russian it requires a prepositional phrase of за + instrumental.

Russian has a whole series of verbs that mean ‘to enter.’ One means to enter by one's one power, another by vehicle, another by water, another by crawling, another by running... Frankly, I expect that if we ever achieve interstellar space travel, it will develop verbs that mean ‘to enter by space’ and ‘to enter by hyperspace.’ For today we will focus on ‘to enter (by one's own power)’ or ‘to walk in to.’ That verb is:

Note that the place you enter appears in the accusative case after the preposition в.

The verb pair привозить/привезти is usually translate as ‘to bring.’ It conjugates like this:

The bringer appears in the nominative case, and the thing brought appears in the accusative:

When you bring something to a person, the person appears in the dative case.

When you bring something to a place, you usually use в/на + accusative:

The verb pair приносить/принести is usually translated as ‘to bring.’ It conjugates like this:

The bringer appears in the nominative case, and the thing brought appears in the accusative:

When you bring something to a person, the person appears in the dative case.

When you bring something to a place, you usually use в/на + accusative:

For English speakers we must keep in mind a couple caveats about this verb pair. First of fall, since the verb implies taking something somewhere in your own arms, you can't use it to say you brought a person to a place unless the person you bring is a baby. Secondly, if you bring something from another city or country, you should use the verb привозить/привезти, which implies motion by vehicle.

The verb pair приезжать/приехать is usually translated as “to arrive, come,” and it implies movement by vehicle. It conjugates like this:

In English we often use the preposition “at” with the verb “arrive,” so we have to bear in mind that for Russians arrival is a motion; that is, you complement the verb with either в/на + accusative or with к + dative:

One point of translation: in English if you see a vehicle approaching, you may say “Here comes the bus/train/taxi.” In Russian you will never use приезжать/приехать in that context. Instead you most commonly use the verb идти.