Questions & Answers about Завтра мы едем на юг.
In Russian, verbs of motion in the present tense are very often used to talk about a planned or scheduled near‑future action, especially when there is a time word like завтра (tomorrow), сегодня вечером (this evening), на следующей неделе (next week), etc.
So:
- Мы едем на юг завтра.
- Завтра мы едем на юг.
both mean We are going (we’re off) to the south tomorrow.
Grammatically, едем is present tense, but the context word завтра pushes the meaning into the future, similar to English We’re going to the south tomorrow (present continuous with future meaning).
Both мы едем на юг and мы поедем на юг can refer to the future, but they focus on slightly different things:
Мы едем на юг (завтра).
– Neutral, often used for arranged plans / scheduled trips; the trip is seen as something already decided and practically happening.Мы поедем на юг (завтра).
– Uses поехать, a perfective verb. It focuses more on the fact of setting off / the decision or result: we will go, we will set off to the south.
In many everyday contexts, both can be translated as We’re going / We’ll go to the south tomorrow, but:
- едем feels like: the trip is on the schedule.
- поедем can sound like: we will (at some point) go / we will make that trip.
Both mean to go / travel by transport, but:
ехать – unidirectional, movement in one specific direction, typically one trip that is going on or planned.
- Я еду домой. – I am going home (now / on this specific trip).
- Завтра мы едем на юг. – Tomorrow we are going (on a trip) to the south.
ездить – multidirectional / habitual, for repeated, habitual, or back‑and‑forth travel.
- Я часто езжу на юг. – I often go to the south.
- Он каждый день ездит на работу. – He goes to work every day (by transport).
In your sentence, it’s a specific planned trip, so едем (from ехать) is correct.
Russian distinguishes going on foot vs going by transport:
- идти / ходить – to go on foot.
- ехать / ездить – to go by some means of transport (car, bus, train, plane, etc.).
Едем comes from ехать, so it implies travel by vehicle / transport, not walking.
If you were walking south, you would say:
- Завтра мы идём на юг. – Tomorrow we are going to the south (on foot).
In real life, for a trip на юг people almost always mean going by transport (car, train, plane), so едем is the natural choice.
For cardinal directions in Russian (north, south, east, west), the standard pattern for movement towards is:
- на север – to the north
- на юг – to the south
- на восток – to the east
- на запад – to the west
So we naturally say ехать на юг, not в юг.
В is used more for enclosed spaces, countries, cities, etc.:
- в город – to the city
- в Россию – to Russia
- в школу – to (the) school
Directions like юг behave more like regions / sides of the world, not like an enclosed place, so the usual preposition is на.
In Завтра мы едем на юг, the noun юг is in the accusative case.
Why:
- The preposition на with movement (onto / to a place) usually takes the accusative.
- Юг is a masculine inanimate noun. For such nouns, the accusative form is identical to the nominative:
- nominative: юг
- accusative: юг
So the form doesn’t change, but functionally it is accusative:
- на юг – to the south (direction, motion; accusative)
- на юге – in the south (location; prepositional)
на юг – motion towards the south, direction or destination.
- Мы едем на юг. – We are going to the south.
на юге – location in the south (already there), no movement.
- Мы живём на юге. – We live in the south.
- Сейчас мы отдыхаем на юге. – Right now we are vacationing in the south.
Grammatically:
- на юг – на
- accusative (юг) → direction / movement.
- на юге – на
- prepositional (юге) → location.
Юг can mean both, depending on context:
Pure direction – simply “south” as a compass direction:
- Поверни направо, потом на юг. – Turn right, then (go) south.
Region / climatic idea – “the south” as a warmer region, southern resorts, seaside, etc.:
- Каждое лето мы едем на юг. – Every summer we go to the south (to southern resorts, like the seaside).
In Завтра мы едем на юг, most native speakers will imagine a southern region / resort area, not just an abstract direction.
Yes. Russian often omits the subject pronoun when it’s clear from context and the verb ending:
- Завтра едем на юг.
The ending -ем in едем clearly shows we (1st person plural), so native speakers will understand it as we are going.
Including мы just makes it a bit more explicit or a little more neutral:
- Завтра едем на юг. – Tomorrow (we) are going to the south.
- Завтра мы едем на юг. – Tomorrow we are going to the south.
Both are completely correct and natural.
Завтра is flexible in word order. All of these are possible and natural; the difference is mostly in rhythm and slight emphasis:
- Завтра мы едем на юг. – Tomorrow we are going to the south.
- Мы завтра едем на юг. – We are going to the south tomorrow.
- Мы едем завтра на юг. – We are going tomorrow to the south (slight emphasis on tomorrow).
- Мы едем на юг завтра. – We are going to the south tomorrow (focus slightly shifts to the destination vs time, but still fine in speech).
The most typical are Завтра мы едем на юг and Мы завтра едем на юг.
Use поехать (perfective) in the simple future:
- Мы поедем на юг завтра. – We will go to the south tomorrow.
- Завтра мы поедем на юг.
This form focuses on the fact that the action will occur / we will set off, not so much on it being a scheduled ongoing trip.
Compare:
- Завтра мы едем на юг. – We are going to the south tomorrow (trip is arranged; sounds like a plan that’s basically happening).
- Завтра мы поедем на юг. – We will go to the south tomorrow (we will make that trip / we will set off).
Present‑tense forms of ехать (unidirectional “to go by transport”) are:
- я еду – I am going (by transport)
- ты едешь – you are going (informal singular)
- он / она / оно едет – he / she / it is going
- мы едем – we are going
- вы едете – you are going (formal or plural)
- они едут – they are going
In your sentence, мы едем is we are going (by transport).
Approximate pronunciation (stressed syllables in capitals):
- ЗА-втра – zA-vtra
- мы – my (like m
- y in myth, but shorter)
- Е-де-м – YE-dem (first syllable stressed)
- на – na (like na in nacho without the cho)
- юг – yug (like yoog, but shorter; final г is a hard g)
All together, smoothly:
- ЗА-втра мы Е-дeм на Юг.