Первый поезд прибывает утром.

The first train arrives in the morning.

Breakdown of Первый поезд прибывает утром.

• поезд: the train
• прибывать: to arrive
• утром: in the morning
• первый: first

Questions & Answers about Первый поезд прибывает утром.

What does первый mean and why is it in this form?

первый is the ordinal adjective “first.” It agrees in gender, number, and case with поезд (masculine, singular, nominative), so it takes the masculine singular nominative ending -ый.

Why is поезд in the nominative case?

Because поезд (“train”) is the subject of the sentence—the entity performing the action “arrive.” In Russian, the subject is marked by the nominative case.

What tense and aspect is прибывает, and why is it used instead of a future tense?

Прибывает is present tense, imperfective aspect. Russian often uses the present imperfective for scheduled events (like timetables), even if they refer to the future. It conveys a routine or fixed schedule rather than a single, completed action.

How is прибывает different from приедет?

Прибывает (imperfective) suggests a regular or scheduled arrival (e.g., timetable). Приедет (perfective future) refers to a one-time, definite arrival (“will arrive”). Use приедет if you’re announcing a single future event rather than a recurring schedule.

What case is утром, and why is there no preposition?

Утром is the instrumental singular of утро (“morning”). Time‐of‐day expressions often use the instrumental case without a preposition to mean “in the morning,” “in the evening,” etc.

Could you say в утром instead of утром?

No. For simple expressions of time of day, Russian uses the instrumental (утром, днём, вечером) without в. If you need a preposition, you’d restructure (e.g., в это утро “on that morning”), but not в утром.

Is the word order Первый поезд прибывает утром flexible?

Basic word order in Russian is fairly free, but Первый поезд (adjective + noun) is the neutral, standard order. You could say Поезд первый прибывает утром for a stylistic or poetic effect, but it sounds marked. Normally adjectives precede nouns in declarative sentences.

If I want to say “The first train will arrive tomorrow morning,” how would I change the sentence?

Use the perfective future verb прибудет and add завтра:
Первый поезд прибудет завтра утром.