Questions & Answers about Я жду друга до вечера.
What is the overall meaning of the sentence Я жду друга до вечера?
It means "I am waiting for my friend until evening." In this sentence, Я means "I," жду is the first-person singular present form of ждать (to wait), друга is the direct object "friend" expressed in the correct case for an animate noun, and до вечера specifies that the waiting lasts up until evening.
Why is the word друга used instead of друг?
In Russian, the verb ждать requires its object to be in the accusative case. For masculine animate nouns such as друг, the accusative singular form looks the same as the genitive, which is друга. This is why you see друга rather than друг.
Why does the phrase до вечера use вечера instead of вечер?
The preposition до (meaning "until") always governs the genitive case. Since вечер becomes вечера in the genitive singular, the phrase correctly reads as до вечера.
Why doesn’t the Russian verb ждать require a preposition like "for" before друга, as in the English phrase "wait for"?