Наша мечта — поехать на маленький остров в тёплом океане.

Our dream is to go to a small island in a warm ocean.

Breakdown of Наша мечта — поехать на маленький остров в тёплом океане.

• маленький: small
• в: in
• на: to
• поехать: to go
• наш: our
• мечта: the dream
• тёплый: warm
• остров: the island
• океан: the ocean

Questions & Answers about Наша мечта — поехать на маленький остров в тёплом океане.

Why is there a dash in Наша мечта — поехать…? Is something “missing” there?

The dash is standing in for the verb “to be” in the present tense.

In Russian, the present-tense form of быть (“to be”) is usually omitted in simple “X is Y” sentences:

• Наша мечта — поехать…
  Literally: Our dream — to go…
  Meaning: Our dream is to go…

You could imagine a “hidden” есть (the present tense of быть):

• Наша мечта (есть) поехать…

The dash:

• is very common when both sides are nouns / noun phrases / infinitives,
• helps show the “X = Y” relationship clearly,
• is optional in speech, but preferred in writing here.

So nothing is missing grammatically; Russian just doesn’t use “is” in this kind of present-tense sentence.

Why поехать and not ехать or ездить?

All three are related but different:

• ехать – imperfective, one-direction / one trip, process-oriented
  “to go / to be going (by vehicle)”
• ездить – imperfective, multi-direction / repeated habitual travel
  “to go (back and forth, regularly)”
• поехать – perfective, one trip, start / fact of the trip
  “to set off / to go (once)” (focusing on the event)

In Наша мечта — поехать на маленький остров…:

• We mean one future trip, as a completed event (“to go there (once) someday”).
• That’s exactly the role of поехать: it presents the trip as a single, concrete action.

If you said:

• Наша мечта — ездить на маленький остров…

it would mean something like “Our dream is to go (there) regularly / to vacation there often,” which is a different idea.

ехать as an infinitive (мечта — ехать) sounds unnatural here; with dreams, plans, or intentions about a single desired trip, perfective поехать is the normal choice.

What case is остров in, and why is it на маленький остров?

остров is in the accusative case: (на) маленький остров.

Rules involved:

• на + accusative = motion onto / to a surface or (for certain nouns) to a place
  → на маленький остров = to a small island (direction)

• маленький is a masculine adjective; in the accusative (inanimate) it looks the same as nominative:

  • Nom. sg. masc.: маленький остров
  • Acc. sg. masc. inanimate: маленький остров (same form)

We use the directional accusative because the verb поехать expresses movement to a place:

• Поехать куда? – на маленький остров.
  (To go where? – to a small island.)

Why is it на маленький остров, but в тёплом океане? Why two different prepositions на and в?

There are two separate ideas:

1. на маленький остров – motion to the island

   • на + accusative indicates direction / destination here.
   • Islands are typically used with на in Russian:
     • на остров, на Кубу, на Сицилию

2. в тёплом океане – location in the warm ocean

   • в + prepositional indicates location inside something.
   • в океане literally: in the ocean.

So the combination is:

• поехать на маленький остров – “to go to a small island”
• (which is) в тёплом океане – “(that is) in a warm ocean”

The preposition на goes with остров (island as a site), and в goes with океан (a volume of water you’re “in”).

What case is океане in, and why is it в тёплом океане and not в тёплый океан?

океане is in the prepositional case: (в) тёплом океане.

• в + prepositional = static location, “in / inside”:
  • в тёплом океане – in the warm ocean (no movement implied)

If we said:

• в тёплый океан (accusative)

that would describe movement into the ocean, as with a verb of motion:

• нырнуть в тёплый океан – to dive into the warm ocean
• плыть в тёплый океан – to swim (heading) into the warm ocean

In the original sentence, в тёплом океане is describing where the island is located, not motion, so the prepositional case is used.

How do the adjectives agree with the nouns: Наша мечта, маленький остров, тёплом океане?

In Russian, adjectives agree with nouns in gender, number, and case:

1. Наша мечта

   • мечта – feminine, singular, nominative
   • Adjective наш in feminine nominative singular is наша.

2. маленький остров (accusative, but inanimate = nominative form)

   • остров – masculine, singular, accusative (inanimate → same as nominative)
   • Adjective маленький – masculine singular, accusative inanimate (same as nominative): маленький.

3. тёплом океане

   • океан – masculine, singular, prepositional
   • Adjective тёплый in masculine singular prepositional is тёплом.

So each adjective is “matching” its noun in all three features.

Could we say Нашa мечта — это поехать…? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

• Наша мечта — это поехать на маленький остров в тёплом океане.

Differences:

• Наша мечта — поехать…

  • Slightly more neutral and concise.
  • Very typical in written Russian, especially in descriptions, essays, etc.

• Наша мечта — это поехать…

  • A bit more colloquial / spoken in feel.
  • The это adds a light emphasis: Our dream is this: to go…

Both are correct; the version without это is slightly more “bookish” or stylistically neat.

Can I change the word order, for example: Поехать на маленький остров в тёплом океане — наша мечта?

Yes, that is grammatically correct:

• Поехать на маленький остров в тёплом океане — наша мечта.

The difference is in emphasis:

• Наша мечта — поехать…

  • Focus starts on “our dream” as the topic.

• Поехать на маленький остров… — наша мечта.

  • Focus starts on the trip itself, then identifies it as our dream.
  • Feels more expressive, like: To go to a small island in a warm ocean – that’s our dream.

Russian allows flexible word order to shift emotional focus, as long as the cases and endings are correct.

Why is there no word for “a” or “the” in маленький остров? How do we know if it’s “a small island” or “the small island”?

Russian has no articles (a, an, the). The idea of “a” vs “the” is:

• often understood from context,
• sometimes made clearer with word order or additional words (like этот – “this/that”).

So маленький остров can mean:

• “a small island” (some unspecified island),
• “the small island” (a specific one already known in context).

In your sentence, with no previous mention of the island, an English speaker naturally interprets it as “a small island”:

• Наша мечта — поехать на маленький остров в тёплом океане. → Our dream is to go to a small island in a warm ocean.

Why мечта and not сон? Both mean “dream”, right?

They are different types of “dream”:

• мечта

  • A wish, aspiration, ideal.
  • Something you want or fantasize about in life, while awake.
  • Examples:
    • Его мечта — стать космонавтом. – His dream is to become a cosmonaut.
    • У меня есть мечта. – I have a dream (a life goal).

• сон

  • Sleep itself, or a dream you see while sleeping.
  • Examples:
    • Мне приснился странный сон. – I had a strange dream (while asleep).
    • Я видел тебя во сне. – I saw you in a dream / in my sleep.

Since the sentence is about a life wish (traveling to an island), мечта is the correct word.

How is поехать, мечта, and тёплом pronounced? Anything tricky for English speakers?

Approximate pronunciations (stressed syllable in bold):

• поехать – [паехатʲ]

  • Stress on -е-: pa-YE-khat’
  • The х is like the ch in German “Bach” or Scottish “loch”.

• мечта – [мишта]

  • Stress on -та.
  • чт is often pronounced close to шт in fast speech: [мʲɪʂˈта].

• тёплом – [тёплам]

  • Stress on тё.
  • The ё is always stressed and pronounced yo: тё = tyo (with a soft т’).

Also note: in many printed texts, ё is written as е (теплом), but the pronunciation remains тёплом [тёплам].