Questions & Answers about Уборка комнаты идёт медленно.
In Russian, идти is often used metaphorically for processes, events, or activities, not just physical walking.
Patterns like:
- Урок идёт. – The lesson is in progress.
- Фильм идёт. – The movie is playing (is on).
- Строительство идёт медленно. – The construction is progressing slowly.
So Уборка комнаты идёт медленно is literally “The cleaning of the room goes slowly,” but idiomatically it means “The cleaning of the room is progressing slowly.” The verb идёт here signals an ongoing process, not physical movement.
Комнаты is in the genitive singular (from комната).
Why genitive? Because уборка комнаты is like “cleaning of (the) room”. The noun уборка (cleaning) behaves like a verbal noun derived from убирать (to clean, to tidy). The thing being cleaned (the “object” of the cleaning) often appears in the genitive after such nouns:
- уборка комнаты – cleaning of the room
- ремонт машины – repair of the car
- изучение языка – study of the language
So комнаты answers “of what?” and therefore uses the genitive.
Both are correct, but they focus on slightly different things.
Уборка комнаты – literally “cleaning of the room”
- The room is the object that is being cleaned.
- Focus is on the room as a whole being cleaned.
- More neutral and common as a general phrase.
Уборка в комнате – literally “cleaning in the room”
- Focus is on the location where cleaning is happening.
- It can imply that cleaning is going on there, as opposed to somewhere else (for example: уборка в кухне, в коридоре, в комнате).
In your sentence, Уборка комнаты идёт медленно highlights that the room itself (as an object) is being cleaned, and that process is slow.
In this sentence, медленно modifies the verb идёт, not the noun уборка.
- идёт медленно – is going (progressing) slowly → adverb
- медленная уборка – a slow cleaning → adjective
So:
- Уборка комнаты идёт медленно.
- How does it go? → медленно (adverb).
If you say:
- Уборка комнаты медленная.
- You’re describing уборка itself as a slow type of thing (a slow cleaning), more like “The cleaning of the room is (a) slow (process).”
Both are possible, but they have slightly different structures and feeling. Using медленно sounds more like describing the course of the process right now.
You can, but the nuance changes.
Уборка комнаты идёт медленно.
- Focus: the process as it unfolds.
- Feels like talking about what’s happening right now or over a period of time.
Уборка комнаты медленная.
- Grammatically: [subject] + [linking “is” (implied)] + [adjective].
- It sounds more like a general description or a somewhat evaluative statement about this cleaning:
- “The cleaning of the room is slow (as a characteristic).”
In many real-life situations, both could potentially be used, but идёт медленно is more natural when describing ongoing progress.
Because медленной is an adjective in the instrumental case, but you need an adverb to modify the verb идёт.
- идёт как? – goes how? → requires an adverb → медленно.
- медленной would fit structures like:
- Уборка комнаты является медленной. (The cleaning of the room is slow.) – even here Russians usually prefer медленной only if they really need a formal, descriptive style.
So in your sentence, only медленно is correct, because you are describing how the action is going, not what the cleaning is like grammatically as a noun phrase.
In this context, идёт usually describes an ongoing process in a particular time period, often including “now,” but it can cover a longer stretch of time, not just this exact moment.
For example:
- Война идёт уже два года. – The war has been going on for two years.
- Ремонт идёт медленно. – The renovation is progressing slowly.
So Уборка комнаты идёт медленно naturally sounds like:
- The cleaning is in progress over some time (could be a few hours, a day, etc.), and that process is slow.
It doesn’t usually mean a timeless habit like English “The room cleaning goes slowly in general”; it’s more like “This / the current cleaning is going slowly.”
No, it’s not necessary. Russian often uses impersonal or agentless constructions for processes:
- Уборка идёт. – The cleaning is going on.
- Строительство идёт. – The construction is underway.
In Уборка комнаты идёт медленно, the sentence focuses on the process, not on the person. The “doer” is simply understood from context, like English passive:
- The cleaning of the room is going slowly (we don’t say who is doing it).
If you really want to specify who, you might say:
- Он убирает комнату медленно. – He cleans the room slowly.
- Они медленно убирают комнату. – They are cleaning the room slowly.
But that’s a different construction (with a personal verb убирать) and a different focus.
Russian word order is relatively flexible, and both variants are possible, with slight changes in emphasis.
Уборка комнаты идёт медленно.
- Neutral, standard: focus on the statement as a whole.
Медленно идёт уборка комнаты.
- Emphasis on медленно:
- Like saying: “Slowly is the way this room cleaning is going.”
- Often used if “slowly” contrasts with some expectation.
Уборка комнаты медленно идёт.
- Also possible, with a bit more emphasis on the cleaning as a topic, then specifying how it goes.
All three are grammatical. The original version is the most neutral and common.
Yes, you can say Уборка идёт медленно.
Difference:
Уборка комнаты идёт медленно.
- Specifies which cleaning: the cleaning of the room.
Уборка идёт медленно.
- More general or vague: some cleaning is going on and it’s slow.
- The context must make it clear what is being cleaned (the flat, the kitchen, the office, etc.).
So including комнаты just makes the sentence more specific.