Breakdown of Мы идём дальше по улице и видим площадку возле школы, где играют дети.
Questions & Answers about Мы идём дальше по улице и видим площадку возле школы, где играют дети.
Russian has several common verbs of motion meaning to go (on foot), and they are not interchangeable:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.