Анна гуляет в тихом парке.

Anna is walking in the quiet park.

Breakdown of Анна гуляет в тихом парке.

• парк: the park
• в: in
• тихий: quiet
• гулять: to walk
• Анна: Anna

Questions & Answers about Анна гуляет в тихом парке.

What is the tense and aspect of гуляет?

Гуляет is the imperfective present tense, 3rd person singular form of гулять. In Russian the imperfective present can correspond both to English present simple (“Anna walks/strolls”) and present continuous (“Anna is walking/strolling”). It emphasizes an ongoing or habitual action without specifying its completion.

What is the difference between гулять and идти/ходить?

Гулять means to stroll or walk for pleasure, with no fixed destination.
Идти (unidirectional) means to go on foot in one specific direction (perfective form of movement).
Ходить (multidirectional/imperfective) means to go on foot habitually or back and forth.
So гулять carries the nuance of a leisurely walk, while идти/ходить focus on the act of going from A to B or habitual movement.

Why doesn’t Russian use articles like the or a in Анна гуляет в тихом парке?

Russian has no direct equivalents of English articles. Definiteness or indefiniteness is inferred from context, word order, or demonstratives (e.g. этот парк “this park”, какой-то парк “some park”). Here в тихом парке simply implies “in the quiet park” without a separate article.

Why is в тихом парке in the prepositional case?

The preposition в when it indicates location (answering the question где? “where?”) always requires the prepositional case. Thus парк becomes парке, and the modifying adjective must also agree in that case.

Why does тихий change to тихом instead of тихой?

In the prepositional singular masculine (and neuter) the hard-stem adjectives end in -ом. So тихий → тихом to agree with парке (masculine noun in the prepositional case).

Could we say гулять по тихому парку instead of в тихом парке? What’s the nuance?

Yes. Гулять по + dative (по тихому парку) emphasizes moving around through the park’s area, like “strolling around the quiet park.”
В + prepositional (в тихом парке) simply states the location of the walk (“walking in the quiet park”). The difference is subtle and both are common.

What if we use the perfective aspect and say Анна погуляет в тихом парке?

With the perfective погулять you switch to future tense and add completion: Анна погуляет в тихом парке means “Anna will take a (complete) walk in the quiet park.” It focuses on the fact that the walk will happen and finish, not on the ongoing process.

How is гуляет pronounced? Show the stress and a transliteration.

The stress falls on the second syllable: гу-ЛЯ-ет.
Transliteration: gulyáet (pronounced [ˈgulʲajɪt]).