В гости
One of the important phrases in Russian that deals with visiting is «в гости». It is a motion phrase, which means it is used with motion verbs, not location verbs. In Russian when you go to someone's home or office, you express that idea with the preposition к followed by the dative case. Thus:
| В понедельник я ездил в гости к тёте. | On Monday I went to visit my aunt. |
| Мы завтра пойдём в гости к Игорю. | Tomorrow we will go visit Igor. |
| Когда я ехала в гости к друзьям на поезде, я была в одном купе с членом Академии наук. | When I was riding the train to visit my friends, I shared a compartment with a member of of the Academy of Sciences. |
Now here is where it gets interesting. In English if you mention that place you are going to in addition to the person, that place is expressed as a location phrase. In Russian that place shows up after the preposition в/на + accusative, in other words in a motion phrase:
| Зимой я всегда летаю в гости к сестре в Канаду. | In the winter I always fly to Canada to visit my sister. |
| Летом к нам в гости в деревню всегда приезжают племянники из города. | In the summer our nephews from the city come to visit us in the village. |
| — Не поверишь, но в августе я полечу в гости к другу в Вашингтон, познакомлюсь с Бараком Обамой. — Ты права, не верю. |
“You're not going to believe this, but in August I'm flying to Washington to visit a friend and I'm going to meet Barak Obama.” “You're right. I don't believe it.” |
There is another phrase «в гостях» that treats visiting as a location instead of a motion. We'll discuss it in a day or two.
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