Завтра я напишу письмо бабушке.

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Breakdown of Завтра я напишу письмо бабушке.

• письмо: the letter
• завтра: tomorrow
• бабушка: the grandmother

Questions & Answers about Завтра я напишу письмо бабушке.

What tense and aspect is напишу, and why does it mean “I will write” rather than “I write”?

Напишу is the first-person-singular future tense of the perfective verb написать. Perfective verbs in Russian cannot express ongoing or habitual actions; their “present” forms always refer to future, completed actions. That’s why напишу translates as “I will write (and finish).”

Why is письмо in the accusative case here?

Письмо is the direct object of the verb написать—it answers the question “what?” (что?). In Russian, direct objects take the accusative case. Since письмо is a neuter noun whose accusative form matches its nominative, it stays письмо.

Why is бабушке in the dative case, and why is there no preposition like “to”?

The dative case marks the indirect object (“to whom?”). In English we use the preposition “to,” but Russian uses the dative ending (-е) on бабушка, giving бабушке, without any additional word.

What does the prefix на- add to писать, and how does that change the meaning?

Adding на- to писать makes написать, the perfective form. While писать (imperfective) means “to write” in an ongoing or habitual sense, написать means “to write (and complete).”