Breakdown of Летом мы едем на свадьбу к двоюродной сестре.
Questions & Answers about Летом мы едем на свадьбу к двоюродной сестре.
In Russian, some time expressions are used without a preposition and in the instrumental case to mean “in / during” a period of time.
Common examples:
- летом – in (the) summer
- зимой – in (the) winter
- осенью – in (the) autumn
- весной – in (the) spring
- ночью – at night
- утром – in the morning
So летом already means “in summer”. Saying в летом is ungrammatical in standard Russian.
Летом is the instrumental singular of лето (summer).
The instrumental is used here in a time expression to mean “during summer / in summer”. It’s a fixed pattern:
- лето → летом
- зима → зимой
- ночь → ночью
So the structure is: [time word in instrumental] + [main clause] to say when something happens.
Both are possible, but they are not identical:
мы едем literally is present tense, but in Russian it’s often used for planned or scheduled near future:
- Летом мы едем на свадьбу… – The plan is set; it’s arranged.
мы поедем is future tense (perfective поехать) and often emphasizes the fact of going in the future, often more neutral about whether it’s already arranged:
- Летом мы поедем на свадьбу… – One day in summer we will go (more “future statement”).
In everyday speech, using едем for a clearly future, arranged event is very common and natural.
Ехать and ездить are a pair of verbs of motion:
- ехать – unidirectional, one specific trip, “to go (by vehicle) in one direction / on one occasion”
- ездить – multidirectional or repeated, “to go (by vehicle) back and forth / habitually”
Here, we are talking about one specific trip to a wedding, so Russian uses the unidirectional verb ехать → мы едем.
If you talked about going to weddings in general, repeatedly, you could use ездить:
- Летом мы часто ездим на свадьбы. – In summer we often go to weddings.
Russian distinguishes how you go:
- идти / ходить – to go on foot (walk)
- ехать / ездить – to go by transport (car, bus, train, etc.)
Едем implies going by some kind of vehicle.
If you were walking to a nearby wedding, you might say:
- Летом мы идём на свадьбу к двоюродной сестре. – We’re going (on foot) to the wedding at our cousin’s place.
With events and activities, Russian normally uses на + accusative:
- на концерт – to a concert
- на лекцию – to a lecture
- на работу – to work
- на вечеринку – to a party
- на свадьбу – to a wedding
So на свадьбу is the standard way to say “to (a) wedding”.
В свадьбу sounds wrong, and к свадьбе usually means “toward the wedding (as a time)”, as in к свадьбе мы всё приготовим – “we’ll prepare everything by the wedding.”
The preposition на can govern either accusative (direction) or prepositional (location), depending on the meaning:
куда? на что? (to where?) → на + accusative – direction
- идти на свадьбу – to go to a wedding
- ехать на работу – to go to work
где? на чём? (where?) → на + prepositional – location
- быть на свадьбе – to be at a wedding
- работать на заводе – to work at a factory
Here it answers куда? (where to?): на свадьбу, so свадьбу is accusative.
The preposition к always takes the dative case.
- Nominative: двоюродная сестра (cousin, f.)
- Dative: двоюродной сестре
So:
- к кому? – to whom? → к двоюродной сестре
Both двоюродной and сестре are in the feminine singular dative, so they agree with each other.
There are two pieces of information:
- на свадьбу – to a wedding (the type of event)
- к двоюродной сестре – to (our) cousin / to our cousin’s place / to the person whose wedding it is
The construction на X к кому-то is common with events that “belong to” or are centered around a person:
- на день рождения к другу – to a friend’s birthday (party)
- на вечеринку к коллеге – to a colleague’s party
- на свадьбу к двоюродной сестре – to our cousin’s wedding
You could also say:
- на свадьбу двоюродной сестры (genitive) – “to the wedding of (our) cousin.”
Both are correct; к + dative is a very idiomatic way to express “X’s event”.
The dative сестре is required by the preposition к:
- к кому? к чему? – to whom? to what? → к + dative
The basic spatial meaning of к + dative is “towards / to (a person or place)”:
- идти к врачу – to go to the doctor
- ехать к родителям – to go to (one’s) parents
- идти к подруге – to go to (one’s) female friend
So к двоюродной сестре matches that pattern: we’re going to the cousin (to her place / to her event), and therefore сестре must be dative.
Двоюродной is the feminine singular dative form of the adjective двоюродная (cousin, lit. “second-degree sister”).
Agreement rules:
- Nominative feminine: двоюродная сестра
- Dative feminine: двоюродной сестре
The adjective changes its ending -ая → -ой to match the noun’s gender, number, and case.
So in к двоюродной сестре, both words are feminine singular dative, which is why you see -ой and -е endings.
Yes, Мы летом едем на свадьбу к двоюродной сестре is also correct.
Basic meaning stays the same, but the focus shifts slightly:
- Летом мы едем… – puts “in summer” at the start, giving it a bit more emphasis (contrast with other seasons, for example).
- Мы летом едем… – starts with “we”, more neutral, common in conversation.
Russian word order is fairly flexible; time expressions like летом can appear at the beginning, in the middle, or sometimes at the end, with subtle differences in emphasis rather than grammar.