Мой друг идёт на конкурс.

the friend

Breakdown of Мой друг идёт на конкурс.

• мой: my
• на: to
• идти: to go

Questions & Answers about Мой друг идёт на конкурс.

What does идёт mean, and what is its grammatical form?

идёт is the third-person singular present tense form of the imperfective verb идти (“to go on foot”). It can be rendered in English as “he goes” or “he is going,” depending on context.

Why is the present tense used here if the action might happen in the near future?

Russian uses the present tense of imperfective verbs to express:

• An action in progress (“he is walking right now”).
• A scheduled or near-future event (“he’s going to a contest later today”).
  There is no separate progressive form as in English.

How would you express “my friend will go to the contest” instead?

Use the perfective verb пойти in the future:

• Мой друг пойдёт на конкурс.
  This specifically means “My friend will go to the contest.”

What case is конкурс in, and why?

It’s in the accusative case. With motion toward a place or event, the preposition на governs the accusative. Since конкурс is an inanimate masculine noun, its accusative form is identical to the nominative: конкурс.

How would you say “at the contest” instead of “to the contest”?

You’d switch to govern the prepositional case: