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Questions & Answers about Моё такси прибудет через час.
Why does the sentence use моё instead of мой or моя before такси?
такси is an indeclinable neuter noun borrowed from French. It has no case endings and always remains такси in all cases. Since its grammatical gender is neuter, any modifying adjective or pronoun must be in the neuter singular form—hence моё такси.
What is the meaning and grammatical aspect of прибудет?
прибудет is the 3rd person singular future tense form of the perfective verb прибыть (“to arrive”).
- Perfective aspect: indicates a single, completed action.
- Future tense: expresses that the arrival will happen at a specific future moment.
So прибудет literally means “(it) will arrive” (once, at a definite time).
Could I use приедет instead of прибудет, as in моё такси приедет через час? Are they interchangeable?
Yes, both прибудет (from прибыть) and приедет (from приехать) are perfective and mean “will arrive.” The main differences are:
- приехать is more colloquial, commonly used for people and vehicles in everyday speech.
- прибыть is slightly more formal or used in written contexts (timetables, announcements).
Therefore, моё такси приедет через час is perfectly natural in conversation.
Why is the preposition через used here with час, and what case does час take?
The structure через + accusative expresses “after a certain period” or “in (time).”
- через час = “in an hour” (literally “after one hour”).
Here, час is in the accusative case. For masculine inanimate nouns like час, the accusative form is identical to the nominative.
How would you express “for an hour” or “during an hour” in Russian? Is it через час as well?
No. To express duration you use different constructions:
- в течение часа (“in the course of an hour”)
- на час (emphasizing you allocate something for one hour, e.g. я оставлю это на час).
Both mean “for/during an hour.”
In contrast, через час always means “starting one hour from now.”
Is the word order Моё такси прибудет через час fixed, or can it be changed for emphasis?
Russian word order is relatively flexible. While the neutral S–V–Adv order is Моё такси (S) прибудет (V) через час (Adv), you can shift elements to change emphasis:
- Прибудет моё такси через час (focus on the fact of arrival)
- Через час прибудет моё такси (focus on the time)
All are grammatically correct; choose based on which part you want to highlight.
How do you pronounce такси and прибудет? Where are the stresses?
- такси: stress on the last syllable – такси (tak-SI).
- прибудет: stress on the second syllable – прибудет (pri-BOO-det).
Accurate stress is important for natural pronunciation.