Breakdown of Мы приедем в город завтра утром.
Questions & Answers about Мы приедем в город завтра утром.
Russian has many verbs of motion.
- ехать / ездить = to go (by vehicle), to be on the way
- идти / ходить = to go (on foot)
- приехать = to arrive (by vehicle), to come and reach the destination
In Мы приедем в город завтра утром, приедем is the future tense of the perfective verb приехать. It focuses on the result – the fact that you will have arrived in the city.
If you said мы поедем в город, that would emphasize setting off / going there, not the arrival (see next question).
Both refer to future movement by vehicle, but the focus is different:
Мы поедем в город.
- Verb: поехать (perfective of ехать)
- Focus: the beginning of the trip / setting off.
- Natural translation: We will go to the city / We’ll set off for the city.
Мы приедем в город.
- Verb: приехать (perfective)
- Focus: arrival at the destination.
- Natural translation: We will arrive in the city.
In your sentence, приедем tells us that at some point tomorrow morning you will already be arriving / reaching the city.
- Infinitive: приехать (perfective) – to arrive (by vehicle)
- 1st person plural future: мы приедем – we will arrive
For perfective verbs like приехать, the simple present endings are used to form the simple future:
- я приеду
- ты приедешь
- он / она / оно приедет
- мы приедем
- вы приедете
- они приедут
There is no separate present tense for perfective verbs; their “present-looking” forms always refer to the future.
The difference is about case and direction vs location:
в город – preposition в
- accusative case
- Used for movement into a place
- Means (into) the city / to the city
в городе – preposition в
- prepositional case
- Used for location inside a place
- Means in the city
Your sentence has приедем (movement/arrival), so Russian uses в город (accusative, direction), not в городе (prepositional, location).
Here город is in the accusative singular:
- Nominative: город
- Accusative (masculine, inanimate): город – same form
Because в with a verb of motion normally requires the accusative for “into / to,” we know город is accusative here: в (куда?) город – “into where? – into the city.”
Russian has no articles (no the, a, an). Context and word order give the meaning that English would show with articles.
So в город can mean:
- to the city
- to a city
- or (more naturally in many contexts) into town
Which English article you choose in translation depends on the situation, not on any extra Russian word.
Yes, Russian word order is flexible. All of these are correct:
- Мы приедем в город завтра утром.
- Завтра утром мы приедем в город.
- Завтра утром в город мы приедем. (more unusual, used for emphasis)
The neutral orders are usually:
- Мы приедем в город завтра утром.
- Завтра утром мы приедем в город.
Changing the order shifts the emphasis, not the basic meaning. Putting завтра утром first emphasizes when it happens.
They combine into a more specific time phrase:
- завтра = tomorrow (any time during the day)
- утром = in the morning
Together: завтра утром = tomorrow morning.
This is exactly like English: “tomorrow” + “morning” → “tomorrow morning.” It’s not redundant; завтра утром narrows the time down.
Утром is historically the instrumental singular of утро (morning):
- Nominative: утро
- Instrumental: утром
In modern Russian, some instrumental forms of time words are used as adverbs of time:
- утром – in the morning
- днём – in the daytime / in the afternoon
- вечером – in the evening
- ночью – at night
So завтра утром literally contains an instrumental form, but you can memorize it as a fixed adverbial phrase: “tomorrow morning.”
Yes, grammatically you can omit мы:
- Приедем в город завтра утром.
Russian verb endings show the person and number, so the subject pronoun is often omitted, especially when it’s clear from context.
However:
- With no context, приедем alone could mean “we will arrive” or be part of a larger phrase.
- Including мы is slightly more neutral / explicit, especially in a standalone sentence.
Grammatically, yes, but the meaning changes:
- придём ← прийти – to arrive (on foot)
- приедем ← приехать – to arrive (by vehicle)
Russian verbs of motion distinguish how you move:
- If you’re walking, you’d say Мы придём в город завтра утром. – We’ll arrive in the city on foot.
- If you’re going by car, train, bus, etc., you say Мы приедем в город завтра утром.
In most realistic “arrive in the city” situations, приедем is more natural because people usually use some kind of transport.
Literally and most precisely, it is “We will arrive in the city tomorrow morning.”
However, in natural English:
- We’ll arrive in the city tomorrow morning – exact, emphasizes arrival.
- We’ll get to the city tomorrow morning – also good and colloquial.
“We’ll go to the city tomorrow morning” focuses more on leaving / setting off, which corresponds more to Мы поедем в город завтра утром, not приедем.
Pronunciation: [prʲˈjedʲɪm]
- Stress is on the second letter / first vowel: приЕдем → при́едем
- Roughly: pree-YE-dyem
Syllables: при-Е-дeм, with Е stressed.
Russian город covers both English city and town. The exact English choice depends on context:
- If you mean a big place, you’ll usually translate as city.
- If you mean a nearby smaller settlement, town or into town may sound more natural in English.
The Russian sentence itself does not distinguish between “city” and “town”; it just says город.