Breakdown of По утрам моя жена собирается делать йогу, но иногда просто спит дольше.
Questions & Answers about По утрам моя жена собирается делать йогу, но иногда просто спит дольше.
По утрам is a fixed pattern: по + dative plural of a time word to mean “on Xs / in the Xs (habitually)”.
- утро → dative plural: утрам
- So по утрам = “in the mornings / on mornings (as a habit)”.
Compare:
- утром – “in the morning (on a particular morning / generally today)”
- по утрам – “in the mornings (regularly, on most mornings)”
Other common examples:
- по вечерам – in the evenings
- по субботам – on Saturdays
- по выходным – on weekends
Утром usually refers to a single morning or a non‑specific “in the morning”:
- Она утром делает йогу. – She does yoga in the morning (could be talking about one day or a regular routine, context decides).
По утрам strongly suggests repeated, habitual action:
- Она по утрам делает йогу. – She does yoga in the mornings (as a regular habit).
In your sentence, по утрам emphasizes that we’re talking about what typically happens on most mornings.
Собираться + infinitive means “to plan / intend / be going to do something”.
- моя жена собирается делать йогу ≈ “my wife intends / is going to do yoga”.
So here it doesn’t mean “to gather” or “to pack” (those are other uses of the same verb), but specifically intention / plan.
The -ся (or -сь) makes the verb reflexive, and in this case it changes the meaning of the verb completely.
- собирать – to collect, to gather (objects or people)
- Она собирает марки. – She collects stamps.
- собираться –
- to get ready (to go somewhere)
- to intend / plan to do something (собираться + infinitive)
In your sentence we have meaning (2): собираться делать йогу – “to plan/ intend to do yoga”. Without -ся it would be a different verb.
You’re right: the more idiomatic Russian is:
- заниматься йогой – to do/practice yoga
- практиковать йогу – to practice yoga
Делать йогу is understandable and used (partly under English influence “do yoga”), but it can sound a bit more casual or learner‑like. Native speakers will most often say:
- По утрам моя жена занимается йогой…
Йогу is the accusative singular form of йога.
- йога – nominative (dictionary form)
- йогу – accusative singular
With a direct object of an action verb like делать, Russian normally uses the accusative:
- делать йогу – to do yoga
- читать книгу – to read a book
- есть суп – to eat soup
So делать (что?) йогу → accusative йогу.
Imperfective делать is used for:
- repeated/habitual actions
- processes or activities without focusing on completion
Yoga is seen as an ongoing activity, and the sentence describes a routine, so imperfective is natural:
- по утрам … делать йогу – to do yoga in the mornings (as a regular activity)
Сделать йогу would sound strange here; сделать implies a single completed result (“to finish doing it once”), which doesn’t fit the idea of a general routine.
Yes. Russian often omits personal pronouns when the subject is clear from context.
The subject моя жена has already been mentioned in the first clause, so in the second clause you can leave it out:
- …моя жена собирается делать йогу, но иногда просто спит дольше.
Adding она is also possible, but it adds a bit of emphasis/contrast:
- …но иногда она просто спит дольше. – “but sometimes she just sleeps longer.”
Просто means “simply / just”.
- иногда просто спит дольше – “sometimes she just sleeps longer.”
It softens the contrast and adds a slightly conversational, casual tone: instead of doing something productive (yoga), she “just” sleeps more. Without просто, the meaning remains, but the nuance is a bit less relaxed/colloquial.
Дольше is the normal comparative form of долго (“for a long time”).
- долго – for a long time
- дольше – longer
Russian usually uses single-word comparatives:
- быстро → быстрее – fast → faster
- тихо → тише – quietly → more quietly
- долго → дольше – long → longer
Более долго is grammatically possible but sounds unnatural in everyday speech; дольше is what you should use here.