Questions & Answers about Мой друг скучает по дому.
What is the tense and person of the verb скучает?
It’s the present tense, third-person singular form of the imperfective verb скучать (“to miss”).
Why is дому in the dative case?
Because скучать uses the fixed pattern скучать по + Dative to express “to miss” something. The preposition по here governs the dative.
Why do we need the preposition по? Can’t we say Мой друг скучает дому?
No. With скучать you always insert по before the dative object. Omitting по would be ungrammatical.
Could we use домой instead of дому?
No. Домой is an adverb of motion (“to home, homeward”) used with verbs of movement. To say “miss home,” you need the noun дом in dative after по: по дому.
What does дом mean here – “house” or “home”?
Literally it’s “house,” but in скучать по дому it carries the emotional sense of “home” – that place where you feel you belong.
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