Breakdown of Вечером мы идём по набережной дальше, пока не увидим высокий дворец.
Questions & Answers about Вечером мы идём по набережной дальше, пока не увидим высокий дворец.
Вечером is the instrumental singular form of вечер (evening), used adverbially to mean “in the evening / this evening.”
Russian often uses the bare instrumental case to express time when something happens, especially with parts of the day and seasons:
- утром – in the morning
- днём – in the daytime / during the day
- вечером – in the evening
- ночью – at night
- зимой, летом – in winter, in summer
You do not add в here. В вечер is incorrect in this meaning; you must say вечером.
With stressed vowels marked, the sentence is:
Ве́чером мы идём по на́бережной да́льше, пока́ не уви́дим высо́кий дворец.
Approximate pronunciation (Latin letters, stressed syllables in CAPS):
- Ве́чером – VE-che-rum
- мы – my (like English me, but shorter)
- идём – ee-DYOM (the ё is always stressed and sounds like “yo”)
- по на́бережной – pa NA-bye-reezh-nai
- да́льше – DAL’-she
- пока́ – pa-KA
- не – nye
- уви́дим – oo-VEE-deem
- высо́кий – vy-SO-kee
- дворец – dva-RETS
Word-by-word clear, natural reading:
ВЕ́чером мы идЁ́м по НА́бережной ДА́льше, пока́ не увИ́дим высО́кий дворЕ́ц.
По набережной literally means “along the embankment / along the riverfront.”
- по here governs the dative case.
- набережная (nominative) → набережной (dative singular).
So the phrase по набережной = along (the) embankment, describing the path of movement.
With verbs of motion, по + dative is very common to express movement along / over / through a surface or area:
- идти по улице – to walk along the street
- гулять по парку – to stroll around the park
- бегать по пляжу – to run along the beach
Here:
- идём по набережной – we go / walk along the embankment.
Alternatives:
- идти вдоль набережной – also “to walk along the embankment,” but вдоль focuses a bit more explicitly on the idea of a line/edge.
- идти на набережной – would usually mean “to be walking on / at the embankment” (location), not the route “along it.”
So по набережной is the natural way to say the path is along the embankment.
Russian often uses the present tense to talk about planned or scheduled near‑future events, especially with a time word like вечером, завтра, etc.
- Вечером мы идём по набережной…
– This evening we are going along the embankment… (a plan, like English present continuous).
If you say:
- Вечером мы пойдём по набережной…
you are using the perfective future (пойдём from пойти). This usually:
- emphasizes a single, one‑time action starting in the future,
- sounds a bit more like a decision or prediction: we will set off / we’ll go.
Both are possible, but:
- идём
- future time = “we’re (scheduled / intending to) go this evening.”
- пойдём = “we will go (one time) this evening,” with more focus on the event as a whole.
In many contexts, they’re close in meaning; the choice is about nuance and style.
Идти and ходить are a classic pair of Russian motion verbs:
- идти – one-direction, one trip, “to go / be going” in a specific direction now or at a specific time.
- ходить – multi-directional or repeated, “to go (there and back, or regularly), to walk.”
In this sentence:
- мы идём по набережной describes one concrete movement along the embankment.
If you say:
- Вечерами мы ходим по набережной, пока не увидим высокий дворец.
this means “In the evenings we (habitually) walk along the embankment until we see the tall palace.”
So:
- мы идём – one particular evening (or one particular route).
- мы ходим – a habit or repeated activity.
With вечером (singular, “this evening”) and увидим (a single completed event), идём is more natural for a specific plan.
Дальше is an adverb meaning “further / farther (on)”. Here it modifies the verb идём:
- идём … дальше – we go further (continue farther).
Both of these are grammatically fine:
- мы идём по набережной дальше
- мы идём дальше по набережной
The difference is subtle:
- по набережной дальше – a bit more like “along the embankment, further on.”
- дальше по набережной – slightly more focus on the idea of “further,” and specifying that this “further” is along the embankment.
In everyday speech, both word orders are common; context and rhythm often decide which sounds better.
The construction пока не + verb is a special idiom in Russian that normally translates as “until + verb” in English.
- Мы идём дальше, пока не увидим высокий дворец.
– We go further until we see the tall palace.
You must keep не here; without it, the meaning changes or becomes wrong:
- пока не увидим = until we see (and then we will stop or something will change).
- пока увидим – is not used in this meaning; it would either sound incorrect or be interpreted as something like “while we see,” which doesn’t fit.
So: in temporal clauses with the sense of a limit in time – “do X until Y happens” – Russian normally uses пока не.
Увидеть is the perfective partner of видеть.
- видеть – to see (imperfective): emphasizes the process / state of seeing.
- увидеть – to see / to catch sight of (perfective): emphasizes the moment of noticing, the result.
In пока не увидим, we are talking about a completed event that marks a stopping point:
- We keep going up to the moment when we see the palace.
That endpoint is naturally expressed with the perfective увидим.
If you said пока не видим, it would sound odd: it would suggest more like as long as we are not seeing (it), which is not the usual way to phrase this type of “until” limit.
So: пока не увидим = “until we (finally) see it / catch sight of it.”
Увидим is a transitive verb and takes a direct object in the accusative case.
- увидим (что?) высокий дворец – we will see (what?) a tall palace.
Дворец is a masculine inanimate noun. For masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative singular form is identical to the nominative:
- Nominative: дворец – palace
- Accusative: дворец – palace (same form)
The adjective высокий also has the same form in nominative and accusative for masculine inanimate:
- Nominative: высокий дворец
- Accusative: высокий дворец
So grammatically, высокий дворец here is accusative, even though it looks like nominative.
No, увидим высокого дворца is not correct in the normal meaning.
- увидим высокий дворец – accusative direct object = we will see a tall palace.
Using высокого дворца (genitive) after увидим would require a different structure, for example:
- увидим силуэт высокого дворца – we will see the silhouette of the tall palace.
There, силуэт is the accusative object of увидим, and высокого дворца depends on силуэт (genitive after a noun).
So in the original sentence, the correct form is высокий дворец (accusative), not высокого дворца.
In Russian:
высокий refers primarily to height (vertical dimension):
- высокий дом – a tall / high building
- высокая гора – a high mountain
- высокий человек – a tall person
большой refers to overall size, largeness:
- большой дом – a big house (maybe wide, massive, not necessarily very tall)
- большой город – a large city
So:
- высокий дворец – a palace that is tall / high.
- большой дворец – a large palace in general (could be spread out, not very tall).
The choice depends on what you want to emphasize. In this sentence, высокий дворец highlights that the palace is visibly tall and perhaps a good landmark when you’re walking.
Пока introduces a subordinate clause of time:
- Main clause: Вечером мы идём по набережной дальше
- Subordinate clause: пока не увидим высокий дворец
In Russian, such subordinate clauses are normally separated by a comma:
- Подожди здесь, пока я схожу в магазин. – Wait here while I go to the shop.
- Он читал, пока не уснул. – He read until he fell asleep.
So the comma before пока is just standard punctuation marking the start of the time clause.
Yes, Russian word order is quite flexible, and these variants are grammatical, with small nuances of emphasis.
Мы вечером идём по набережной дальше, пока не увидим высокий дворец.
– Starts with мы, then adds вечером. Slightly more neutral, subject‑first order.Вечером мы идём дальше по набережной, пока не увидим высокий дворец.
– Puts a bit more emphasis on дальше as “further,” then specifies по набережной.Вечером мы по набережной идём дальше, пока не увидим высокий дворец.
– Possible, but the phrase по набережной gets extra emphasis (route).
All of these are understandable; the original Вечером мы идём по набережной дальше… is a natural, neutral choice:
- Вечером at the start sets the time frame.
- мы идём = subject + verb.
- по набережной дальше = how and where we go.