На соседней улице открылась новая пекарня.

A new bakery has opened on the neighboring street.

Breakdown of На соседней улице открылась новая пекарня.

• новый: new
• на: on
• улица: the street
• пекарня: the bakery
• соседний: neighboring
• открыться: to open

Questions & Answers about На соседней улице открылась новая пекарня.

Why do we say на соседней улице and not в соседней улице?

In Russian, some places take на and others take в, and you mostly just have to memorize which.

• You normally say на улице (on the street), на площади (in the square), на станции (at the station), на заводе (at the factory), etc.
• You say в доме (in the house), в городе (in the city), в парке (in the park), etc.

So на соседней улице is the standard set phrase: literally on the neighboring street.
В соседней улице sounds wrong to native speakers.

What case is соседней улице, and why is it used here?

Соседней улице is in the prepositional case, singular, feminine.

The pattern is:

• Preposition на
  • prepositional case (for location)
    → на улице, на соседней улице

We use the prepositional case after на when we talk about where something is (location, not movement).
So the new bakery is located on the neighboring street → на соседней улице.

Why does соседней end in -ей, but улице ends in -е?

They have different endings because they are different parts of speech:

• улице – noun, feminine, singular, prepositional
  
  • base: улица
  • prepositional ending: -е → улице
• соседней – adjective, feminine, singular, prepositional
  
  • base: соседний
  • feminine prepositional ending: -ей → соседней

Adjectives must agree with the noun in:

• gender (feminine),
• number (singular),
• case (prepositional),

but they use their own set of endings, which is why the exact letters are different.

What genders are улица and пекарня, and how can I tell?

Both улица and пекарня are feminine nouns.

Typical clues:

• Nouns ending in -а or -я are usually feminine: улица, пекарня, машина, неделя.
• In a dictionary, they will be listed as улица (ж.), пекарня (ж.), where ж. is feminine.

In the sentence:

• улице → feminine singular prepositional
• пекарня → feminine singular nominative (it is the subject)

Why is the verb открылась feminine?

In Russian, past-tense verbs agree with the subject in gender and number.

The subject is пекарня (a bakery), which is:

• feminine,
• singular.

So the past tense of открыться must be:

• masculine: открылся
• feminine: открылась
• neuter: открылось
• plural: открылись

Because пекарня is feminine singular, we use открылась.

What does the -сь at the end of открылась mean?

The -сь (or -ся) is the reflexive ending. It usually:

• makes the verb intransitive (no direct object),
• can mean to become, to change state, or happen by itself.

Compare:

• открыли новую пекарню – they opened a new bakery (someone did it)
• открылась новая пекарня – a new bakery opened (it opened / appeared)

In your sentence, открылась suggests the bakery appeared / opened (for business), without focusing on who exactly opened it.

Is открылась perfective or imperfective, and why that aspect here?

Открылась is perfective (from открыться).

Perfective aspect is used for:

• a completed action,
• a result or new situation.

We are talking about a finished event: at some point, the bakery began to operate, and now it is open. That is why Russian uses the perfective открылась, not an imperfective form like открывалась or открывается in this sentence.

Why is there no word for there is in this sentence?

Russian often doesn’t use a separate word for there is / there are. Existence is usually expressed by word order and sometimes by есть.

• На соседней улице открылась новая пекарня.
  Literally: On the neighboring street opened a new bakery.
  Meaning: There is a new bakery that has opened on the neighboring street.

If you added есть here, it would sound strange. Есть is more typical in present-time, neutral existence statements like:

• На соседней улице есть пекарня. – There is a bakery on the neighboring street.

But with opened, the verb itself already expresses the idea that the bakery now exists there, so no extra there is is needed.

Why does the sentence start with На соседней улице instead of Новая пекарня like in English?

Russian word order is more flexible than English. Both are possible:

• На соседней улице открылась новая пекарня.
• Новая пекарня открылась на соседней улице.

The version in your example:

• puts the location first (on the neighboring street),
• then the event (opened),
• then what opened (a new bakery).

This structure sounds very natural when the speaker wants to set the scene (where) before saying what happened there.

Is it correct to say Новая пекарня открылась на соседней улице? Is there any difference?

Yes, Новая пекарня открылась на соседней улице is completely correct.

Nuance:

• На соседней улице открылась новая пекарня.
  Slight emphasis on the place: something happened on that street.
• Новая пекарня открылась на соседней улице.
  Slight emphasis on the bakery: this new bakery’s location is on that street.

Both mean the same basic thing; the difference is mostly in focus, not in grammar.

What is the difference between пекарня and булочная?

Both can be translated as bakery, but there is a nuance:

• пекарня – a place where bread and pastries are baked; it can be a production place or a small bakery shop, especially in modern language.
• булочная – traditionally a bread / pastry shop, a slightly old-fashioned word, often associated with bread stores in Soviet times.

In everyday modern speech, пекарня is more common and sounds more current; булочная can sound a bit old-fashioned or stylistic, though it is still understood.

Could I say На соседней улице открыли новую пекарню? How is that different?

Yes, На соседней улице открыли новую пекарню is also correct.

Difference in meaning:

• На соседней улице открылась новая пекарня.
  Focus on the bakery itself: a new bakery has appeared / is now open there.
• На соседней улице открыли новую пекарню.
  Literally: (They) opened a new bakery on the neighboring street.
  Focus on the action by people (they opened it); the doer is implied but not named.

Both are natural; the original sentence is a bit more impersonal / event-focused and common in announcements or casual comments.

Is улице singular or plural here? How would I say on the neighboring streets?

Улице is singular (one street), prepositional case.

To say on the neighboring streets, you would use the plural:

• Nominative plural: соседние улицы (neighboring streets)
• Prepositional plural (after на for location): на соседних улицах

So:

• на соседней улице – on the neighboring street (one)
• на соседних улицах – on the neighboring streets (more than one)