Зимой я редко езжу на машине.

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Breakdown of Зимой я редко езжу на машине.

• на: by
• машина: the car
• ездить: to go

Questions & Answers about Зимой я редко езжу на машине.

Why is Зимой in the instrumental case, and what role does it play here?

In Russian, seasons used as adverbial time expressions (like in winter) take the instrumental case without a preposition. So Зимой is the instrumental singular of зима, acting as an adverbial modifier of time meaning in winter.

Why do we use ездить instead of ехать in this sentence?

Ездить is the imperfective, multidirectional verb of motion, used for habitual or repeated actions. Ехать is the imperfective unidirectional form for a single, one‐way trip. Since the sentence describes a habitual action (“I rarely drive”), we choose ездить and say я езжу (“I go/drive regularly”).

What’s the difference between ездить на машине and водить машину? They both translate as “to drive a car,” right?

Not quite. Ездить на машине means to travel by car (focus on the means of transport). Водить машину means to operate/drive a car (focus on the skill or act of driving itself). So you’d use ездить на машине for “I go to work by car” and водить машину for “I’m learning how to drive.”

Why is на used with машине, and why is машине in the prepositional case?