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Questions & Answers about Позвони мне, когда будешь дома.
Why is позвони used here instead of звони?
позвони is the perfective imperative form of позвонить, signaling a single, completed action (“call me once, make the call”). In contrast, звони is the imperfective imperative of звонить and would imply repeated or habitual calls (“keep calling me”).
Why is мне in the dative case?
The verb позвонить requires its object—the person you call—to be in the dative case. So мне means “to me.”
Why is the subject ты omitted in когда будешь дома?
Russian often drops subject pronouns when the verb ending clearly indicates person and number. Here, будешь already shows second person singular, so ты is redundant in informal speech.
What part of speech is дома, and why isn’t there a preposition?
дома is an adverb meaning “at home.” As an adverb, it doesn’t take a preposition or case ending—just like English “home” in “when you’re home.”
Why is будешь in the future tense in the subordinate clause?
In Russian time clauses introduced by когда, you use the future tense to talk about future events in both the main and subordinate clauses. Hence когда будешь дома (“when you will be home”).
Is the comma before когда necessary?
Yes. You always put a comma between the main clause (Позвони мне) and a subordinate clause of time (когда будешь дома).