Люди бегают в парке.

to run

Breakdown of Люди бегают в парке.

• парк: the park
• в: in
• люди: the people

Questions & Answers about Люди бегают в парке.

Why does the sentence use бегают instead of бегут?

Russian actually has two imperfective verbs for “to run”:

• бегать – multi-directional or habitual running (to run regularly, back-and-fro).
• бежать – unidirectional running (to run in one specific direction).
  бегают is the 3rd person plural present of бегать, so it describes people running habitually or back-and-forth in the park. бегут would be the 3rd person plural of бежать, used when you want to emphasize a single, one-way run.

What case is в парке, and why is it used here?

В парке is the prepositional case (singular of парк). After the preposition в, the prepositional indicates a static location (“in the park”).
Formation: парк → парке (masculine nouns add -е in the prepositional singular).
If you wanted movement “into the park,” you would use the accusative: в парк.

Can Люди бегают в парке mean both a habitual action and an action happening right now?