Dialogue: Asking for Directions

Asking the way is one of the first things you actually do in a new city, and the Russian for it packs in several A2 building blocks at once: a verb of motion in a special "how to get there" frame, a preposition that forces a case ending onto your destination, a couple of polite commands, and a cluster of left/right/straight-on adverbs. There is also a very Russian quirk at the end — "about five minutes" comes out as мину́т пять, with the number after the noun. Read the whole exchange first, then the line-by-line commentary.

The dialogue

Line by line

— Извини́те, как пройти́ к метро́?

Извини́те ("excuse me") is the standard way to flag down a stranger. Its form is the вы-imperative (the ты-version is Извини́), so it already sets the polite register — you would never open with ты to a passer-by.

The heart of the line is как пройти́ ("how to get [there] on foot"). Two things deserve attention:

• пройти́ is a perfective infinitive — the perfective of идти́ ("to go on foot") with the prefix про- ("through, past, the whole way"). Russian uses the perfective here because you are asking about reaching the goal as a single completed result — "how to make the whole trip and arrive", not "how to be in the process of walking". This is the natural aspect for directions.
• The frame как + infinitive ("how to do X") needs no subject and no modal: not как я могу́ пройти́, just как пройти́? The infinitive alone carries the impersonal "how does one get…".

к метро́ is "to the metro". The preposition к ("towards, to") takes the dative case, so метро́ is in the dative — except метро́ is a borrowed, indeclinable noun, so it looks identical in every case. The grammar is still there; the word simply doesn't show it.

— Иди́те пря́мо, пото́м напра́во.

Иди́те is the вы-imperative of идти́ ("go!"). The polite plural imperative ends in -те; the ты-form would be Иди́. Because the person started with вы, the local answers in the same register — note the matching politeness.

The two adverbs give the route:

• пря́мо — "straight ahead". (Be careful: пря́мо is the direction adverb; the adjective прямо́й means "straight/direct".)
• напра́во — "to the right", a direction adverb (motion towards the right). Its mirror image is нале́во ("to the left").

— А пото́м?

A minimal, natural follow-up: А пото́м? ("And then?"). А is the mild contrastive "and/so", and пото́м means "then, afterwards". No verb needed — context supplies "what do I do then?".

— Пото́м уви́дите большо́й магази́н. Метро́ бу́дет сле́ва.

уви́дите is the perfective future of уви́деть ("to catch sight of") — 2nd-person plural, addressing the вы listener: "you will see / you'll spot". Perfective again, because it's a single moment of noticing. большо́й магази́н ("a big shop") is the accusative object, but as a masculine inanimate noun it looks the same as the nominative.

Метро́ бу́дет сле́ва = "The metro will be on the left." Here the future "to be" does surface: бу́дет ("will be"), 3rd-person singular. And note the adverb switch: now it is сле́ва ("on the left", location), not нале́во — because we're saying where the metro is, not which way to turn.

— Это далеко́?

Это далеко́? — "Is it far?" Two A1/A2 staples in three words:

• Это ("this/it") as a neutral pointing subject.
• далеко́ is a predicative adverb ("[it is] far"), and there is no verb — Russian drops the present-tense "to be". The whole question is just "This — far?"

— Нет, мину́т пять пешко́м.

This is the line with the famous twist. The plain way to say "five minutes" is пять мину́т (number first). But мину́т пять, with the noun first and the number after, means "about / roughly five minutes". Inverting the word order is how Russian expresses an approximate quantity — no extra word needed.

пешко́м means "on foot, walking". It is the frozen instrumental of an old noun (пехота "infantry" is a cousin), now simply an adverb. The matching question is Как туда́ дое́хать? (by transport) vs Как туда́ дойти́ пешко́м? (on foot).

— Большо́е спаси́бо!

A warm sign-off: Большо́е спаси́бо ("thank you very much", literally "big thanks"). The adjective большо́е agrees with the neuter noun спаси́бо — a frozen but fully idiomatic combination.

Vocabulary gloss

Register note

The whole exchange runs on вы: Извини́те, the -те imperatives (Иди́те), the 2nd-plural future (уви́дите). This is exactly right for two strangers on the street — politeness with someone you don't know. To a child or a close friend you could drop to ты (Извини́, иди́ пря́мо… уви́дишь магази́н), but with an adult stranger the вы-forms are the safe, expected choice. The dialogue thus doubles as a model of how the imperative carries register: -те = polite/plural, bare stem = familiar singular.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• как + perfective infinitive asks "how do I get to…": как пройти́ (on foot), как прое́хать (by vehicle) — no subject, no modal.
• к + dative points you towards a destination: к метро́, к вокза́лу. (в
  • accusative is "into" a building.)
• Polite imperatives end in -те: Иди́те, Поверни́те. Bare stem (Иди́) is the familiar ты-form.
• Direction vs location: turn напра́во / нале́во (towards), but something stands спра́ва / сле́ва (where it is).
• мину́т пять (noun before number) = "about five minutes" — inverting the order makes a quantity approximate.
• пешко́м = "on foot"; the present "to be" is silent (Это далеко́?).