Иногда в маршрутке слишком много людей, и я решаю идти пешком всю дорогу.

Sometimes there are too many people in the minibus, and I decide to walk the whole way.

Breakdown of Иногда в маршрутке слишком много людей, и я решаю идти пешком всю дорогу.

• я: I
• в: in
• много: many
• и: and
• человек: the person
• иногда: sometimes
• слишком: too
• дорога: the way
• весь: whole
• маршрутка: the minibus
• решать: to decide
• идти пешком: to walk

Questions & Answers about Иногда в маршрутке слишком много людей, и я решаю идти пешком всю дорогу.

What exactly does маршрутка mean? Is it just a “bus”?

Маршрутка is a specific type of public transport:

• It’s a minibus / shared taxi that follows a fixed route.
• Smaller than a regular автобус (bus).
• You can usually get on and off between official stops.
• It’s very common in Russia and other post‑Soviet countries.

So в маршрутке here means “in the (route) minibus,” not just any bus.

Why is it в маршрутке and not на маршрутке or в маршрутку?

• в маршрутке = inside the minibus (location, “in the minibus”).
• маршрутке is prepositional case (feminine noun маршрутка).

Compare:

• Я в маршрутке. – I’m in the minibus. (static location)
• Я сажусь в маршрутку. – I’m getting into the minibus. (movement into → в + accusative)

You could also hear на маршрутке in some contexts, but that usually emphasizes the means of transport (“by minibus”), not physically being inside it at the moment:

• Я поеду на маршрутке. – I’ll go by minibus.

In this sentence we’re talking about how many people are inside it, so в маршрутке is natural.

Why isn’t there a verb like есть (“to be”) in в маршрутке слишком много людей?

In Russian, the present‑tense verb “to be” (есть) is usually omitted in simple “there is / there are” statements.

• English: “There are too many people in the minibus.”
• Russian: В маршрутке слишком много людей. (literally: “In the minibus too many people.”)

You could say В маршрутке есть слишком много людей, but it sounds clumsy or overly emphatic. The natural, neutral version just drops есть.

Why is it много людей, not много люди?

After много (a lot of / many), the noun usually takes genitive plural:

• много людей – a lot of people (genitive plural of люди)
• много книг – many books (genitive plural of книга)

So:

• люди = “people” (nominative plural, used as the subject)
• людей = “of people” (genitive plural, used after много, мало, сколько, нет, etc.)

The pattern:
много / мало / сколько / нет + GENITIVE

What’s the difference between слишком много людей and очень много людей?

• очень много людей = very many people, a large number, but neutral in evaluation.
• слишком много людей = too many people, it’s excessive, more than is comfortable/acceptable.

In the sentence, слишком shows that the speaker doesn’t like how crowded it is, which motivates the decision to walk.

Why is it я решаю идти, not я решаю пойти or я решаю ходить?

Three things here: aspect and motion verbs.

1. решаю идти

   • решаю (imperfective, present): “I (habitually) decide”.
   • идти (unidirectional “to go (on foot) in one direction”).
   • Together: “I decide to walk (this specific way, on this occasion)” as a typical, repeated scenario.

2. Why not пойти?

   • пойти is perfective: “to set off / to go (start going)”.
   • решаю пойти пешком sounds like you’re focusing on a single, concrete future decision (“I decide to set off walking (now / this time)”).
   • For a general habit (“Sometimes … I decide to walk”), идти is more natural.

3. Why not ходить?

   • ходить is multidirectional (“to walk (around), to go (there and back, repeatedly)”).
   • Here it’s about one particular trip: walking the whole route once instead of riding. That’s идти territory.

What does идти пешком literally mean, and why is пешком in that form?

• идти пешком literally: “to go on foot”.
• пешком is an adverb‑like form derived from пеший (“on foot”) and historically from the instrumental. In modern Russian you can just treat пешком as an adverb meaning “on foot”.

So:

• идти пешком – to walk / to go on foot.
• ехать на автобусе – to go by bus.
• лететь самолётом – to go by plane.

The pattern:
идти пешком vs ехать / лететь / плыть + (instrumental or на + transport)

Why is it всю дорогу, not вся дорога or весь дорогу?

• дорога is feminine: эта дорога (this road / this way).
• Accusative singular feminine: всю дорогу.

Here всю дорогу means “the whole way (all the distance)” and acts like an object/measure of the action идти:

• идти всю дорогу – to walk the whole way.

Forms:

• Nominative: вся дорога – “the whole road/way” (as a subject).
• Accusative used with the verb: всю дорогу.

весь дорогу is impossible because дорога is feminine, not masculine.

Could the word order be я решаю всю дорогу идти пешком? Is that okay?

Yes, Russian allows flexible word order.
Both are grammatically correct:

1. я решаю идти пешком всю дорогу
   – neutral, very natural.

2. я решаю всю дорогу идти пешком
   – stresses всю дорогу a bit more (“I decide to walk the whole way”).

The meaning is essentially the same; only the emphasis shifts slightly. The original version is more typical.

Can we change the beginning to Иногда слишком много людей в маршрутке? Does that sound different?

Иногда слишком много людей в маршрутке is possible, but:

• Иногда в маршрутке слишком много людей puts в маршрутке earlier, setting the location first, then describing the situation inside it.
• Иногда слишком много людей в маршрутке starts with “Sometimes there are too many people” and only then adds “in the minibus” as a kind of afterthought.

Both are understandable. The original feels slightly more natural and flowing in everyday speech.

Why is there a comma before и я решаю?

Because we have two separate clauses (two mini‑sentences) joined by и:

1. Иногда в маршрутке слишком много людей
2. я решаю идти пешком всю дорогу

Each has its own subject and verb:

• Clause 1: (understood) “there are” too many people.
• Clause 2: я решаю.

In Russian, when и connects two independent clauses, you normally put a comma before и:

• …, и я решаю …
• …, и он уходит.