Learn Hardcore Russian: Мы идём дальше по улице и видим площадку возле школы, где играют дети. - We walk further along the street and see a playground near the school where children are playing.

идти / идти (идём here) – one‑direction movement, in progress right now or in a specific situation.
- Мы идём дальше. – We are going/walking further (right now, in one direction).
ходить (мы ходим) – multi‑direction or habitual movement.
- Мы ходим по этой улице каждый день. – We (regularly) walk along this street every day.
пойти (мы пойдём) – to set off / to start going; often future or the beginning of movement.
- Мы пойдём дальше. – We’ll (then) go on / we’ll continue walking (from that moment).

In this sentence, the speaker describes what is happening right now as they move in one direction down the street, so идём is the natural choice.

What exactly does дальше mean in Мы идём дальше по улице? Could it go somewhere else in the sentence?

Дальше is an adverb meaning further, farther, on, continuedly. It adds the idea that you keep going; you don’t stop or turn.

Мы идём дальше по улице… – We keep walking further along the street.

Word order is quite flexible. You might also hear:

Мы идём по улице дальше…
Дальше мы идём по улице…

All are grammatical. The given order (идём дальше по улице) is very natural and neutral. Changing the position of дальше can slightly change emphasis, but not the basic meaning.

In по улице, why is the noun улица in the form улице? Why not по улицу?

The preposition по can take different cases, but with the meaning “along, down, through (a surface/area)” it normally uses the dative case.

улица – nominative (dictionary form)
улице – dative singular

With this meaning, you say:

по улице – along the street
по дороге – along the road
по реке – along / down the river

По улицу would be ungrammatical in modern standard Russian in this sense. So:

Мы идём дальше по улице… – We are walking further along the street.

What is the role of по in по улице? Could I use на or по дороге instead?

Here, по expresses movement along / through a space:

идти по улице – to walk along the street
гулять по парку – to walk around (in) the park
ехать по шоссе – to drive along the highway

Using на would change the meaning:

идти на улице – to go / be walking on the street (as a location, not emphasizing the direction “along”).

You could say по дороге instead of по улице, but дорога means road rather than street, so it’s a slightly different picture, not just a grammar alternative.

Why is площадку in the form площадку, not площадка or площадке, after видим?

Площадка is a feminine noun:

nominative: площадка (dictionary form)
accusative singular: площадку

The verb видеть (видим) takes a direct object in the accusative case:

видим кого? что? – see whom? what?

So:

Мы видим площадку… → площадку is the direct object → accusative.
That’s why it changes from площадка to площадку.

What does площадка mean here exactly? How is it different from площадь or from детская площадка?

In this sentence, площадка means a (play)ground, small area/lot, specifically:

a small open area near the school where children are playing – so it’s understood as a playground.

Compare:

площадь – a (town) square, usually a big open public space (e.g. Красная площадь – Red Square).
площадка – literally “small square/area”, can be:
- a playground,
- a little platform (e.g. балконная площадка – balcony platform),
- a landing on a staircase, etc.

To make it explicit that it’s a children’s playground, Russians often say:

детская площадка – children’s playground
игровая площадка – play area, play court

In context, площадка возле школы, где играют дети is clearly a playground near the school.

In возле школы, why is школа changed to школы?

The preposition возле (meaning near, by, close to) requires the genitive case.

школа – nominative
школы – genitive singular

After возле, you use:

возле дома – near the house
возле магазина – near the shop
возле школы – near the school

So возле школы is “near the school / by the school”, with школы in the genitive.

Could I say у школы or рядом со школой instead of возле школы? Are there differences?

All three are common and often interchangeable in everyday speech:

возле школы – near the school
у школы – at / by the school
рядом со школой – next to the school

Nuances (very slight):

возле and у are a bit more neutral/short;
рядом с(о) often emphasizes “right next to / in the immediate vicinity of”.

In your sentence, any of these would sound natural:

…видим площадку возле школы…
…видим площадку у школы…
…видим площадку рядом со школой…

Why is there a comma before где in возле школы, где играют дети?

In Russian, где играют дети is a subordinate (relative) clause that describes площадку (“the playground”).

площадку (какую?) где играют дети – the playground where children are playing.

Such clauses are normally separated by a comma from the main clause:

Мы видим площадку, где играют дети.
Это дом, который построил мой дед. – This is the house that my grandfather built.

So the comma before где is standard punctuation to mark the start of this descriptive (relative) clause.

In где играют дети, what does где refer to exactly: the school or the playground?

Grammatically, где here refers to the closest suitable noun that makes sense, which is площадку.

The structure is:

видим площадку возле школы, где играют дети
→ площадку … где играют дети – the playground where children are playing.

The phrase возле школы just gives the location of the playground. The clause где играют дети describes the playground, not the school, even though both are nearby in the sentence. This is also how a native speaker intuitively understands it in context.

Why is it где играют дети and not где дети играют? Are both possible?

Both word orders are grammatically correct:

где играют дети
где дети играют

The difference is in information focus:

где играют дети – neutral here; the focus is a little more on the action (“where children are playing”).
где дети играют – can slightly emphasize дети (“where the children are playing”), or sound just a bit more colloquial.

In your sentence, где играют дети is perfectly natural and very typical. Где дети играют would also be acceptable, just with a slightly different rhythm/emphasis.

What tense and aspect is играют? How would I say “will play” or “played”?

Играют is:

present tense,
imperfective aspect,
3rd person plural (они играют).

It corresponds to English “play / are playing”, because Russian present simple covers both simple and continuous:

дети играют – the children play / the children are playing.

Other forms:

будут играть – will play / will be playing (future, imperfective)
сыграют – will (once) play, will play a game and finish (future, perfective, result‑focused)
играли – played / were playing (past, imperfective)
сыграли – played and finished / played once (past, perfective).

Why is видим (from видеть) used instead of увидим (from увидеть)?

Видеть and увидеть are an imperfective / perfective pair:

видеть (imperfective) – to see (as a process/state: “we see / are seeing”).
увидеть (perfective) – to see, catch sight of (as a single completed event: “we will see / we suddenly saw”).

In your sentence:

мы… видим площадку – as we continue walking, we see a playground (it is in our field of vision).

If we used увидим:

…и увидим площадку… – “…and (then) we will catch sight of a playground…”
This would usually be in a narrative describing what happens next (often in past or future time).

So видим fits better for a simple present-time description of what you see while walking.

What is дети? Is it just the plural of ребёнок or something else?

Дети is the common word for children. It’s irregular:

singular: ребёнок – a child
plural: дети – children

In your sentence:

играют дети – children are playing.

Here дети is in the nominative plural (subject of the verb играют).

There is also the word дитя (archaic/poetic/special style for “child”), whose plural is also дети, but in normal modern speech you just use:

ребёнок / дети – child / children.

Could the pronoun Мы be omitted in this sentence?

Yes. In Russian, subject pronouns are often dropped when the verb ending already shows the person and number clearly.

Мы идём дальше по улице…
Идём дальше по улице…

Both are grammatical. Omitting мы is common in narration, instructions, or when the subject is already obvious from context.

Including Мы just makes the subject explicit and is slightly more neutral and clear, especially in a standalone sentence.

Is there any difference between Мы идём дальше по улице и видим площадку… and Мы идём дальше по улице, и видим площадку… with a comma before и?

Yes:

Without comma (as in your sentence):
Мы идём дальше по улице и видим площадку…
→ Treated as one combined action in a single flow: “we walk further along the street and (as a result, while doing so) see a playground.”
With comma:
Мы идём дальше по улице, и видим площадку…
→ Makes the two actions sound more separate, almost like two independent statements: “We go further along the street, and we see a playground.”
In such a short and closely connected action sequence, Russians usually omit the comma, as in your original sentence.

So the version without the comma is stylistically more natural here.