По утрам я бегаю в парке.

In the mornings I run in the park.

Breakdown of По утрам я бегаю в парке.

• я: I
• бегать: to run
• парк: the park
• в: in
• по утрам: in the mornings

Questions & Answers about По утрам я бегаю в парке.

Why is по утрам used instead of утром?

по + dative plural expresses a habitual or repeated action in the mornings, whereas утром is an adverb meaning simply in the morning (often referring to a single occurrence).

What case is утрам, and why do we use that case?

утрам is in the dative plural. The preposition по governs the dative case when talking about times or locations distributed over a period (e.g., days, mornings).

What nuance does по утрам convey compared to just утром?

• утром refers to the time of day or one specific morning.
• по утрам highlights that the action happens regularly or habitually on mornings (every morning or most mornings).

Why is the verb бегаю in the imperfective aspect instead of a perfective form like побегаю?

The imperfective бегаю indicates a habitual, repeated, or ongoing action. Using a perfective form like побегаю would focus on the completion of one run (for example, I will go for a run) rather than on running as a regular activity.

What does the present tense of бегаю express in this sentence?

In Russian, present-tense imperfective verbs can express:

1. A current ongoing action (“I am running right now”).
2. A habitual or repeated action (“I regularly run”).
   Here, по утрам sets a habitual context, so бегаю means I regularly run.

Why do we say в парке, and what case is парке?

We use the preposition в (meaning in/at) plus the prepositional case. парк changes to парке to indicate a static location where the action takes place (“in the park”).

Could I say я бегаю по парку instead of в парке? What’s the difference?

Yes.
• я бегаю по парку means I run around or through the park, emphasizing movement along or around its area (preposition по + dative).
• в парке simply places the action inside the park without specifying the path.

Why doesn’t Russian use articles like the or a?

Russian has no grammatical articles. Definiteness or indefiniteness is conveyed by context, word order, or demonstratives (e.g., этот парк for this park, какой-то парк for some park).

Can we swap the word order to Я бегаю в парке по утрам? Does emphasis change?

Yes, both orders are grammatically correct.
• Starting with По утрам (as in the original) emphasizes the time frame.
• Putting по утрам at the end gives a more neutral or general statement. Russian word order is flexible and used to shift emphasis.