Questions & Answers about Я бегаю утром чуть быстрее, чем вечером.
Why is it я бегаю and not я бегу?
Russian has two main verbs for “to run”:
- бегать (imperfective, multidirectional, habitual)
- бежать (imperfective, unidirectional, usually about one specific running action in one direction)
Я бегаю means “I (regularly / habitually) run” or “I run around (in general)”.
Я бегу means “I am running (right now) / I am running (to some place)”.
In the sentence Я бегаю утром чуть быстрее, чем вечером, we’re talking about a regular, repeated situation: how the person usually runs in the morning vs in the evening. That’s why Russian uses бегаю (from бегать), not бегу (from бежать).
What exactly does бегаю express here? Is it present continuous (“I am running”) or simple present (“I run”)?
Russian doesn’t have a separate present continuous form like English “I am running”. The same present tense form covers both “I run” (habit) and “I am running” (right now).
However, context and verb choice matter:
- With бегаю (from бегать), the default meaning is habitual/repeated action: я бегаю утром ≈ “I (usually) run in the morning”.
- If you wanted to say “I am running (right now)”, you’d usually pick я бегу instead.
So here я бегаю clearly means “I usually run (in general)” rather than “I am running right now”.
Why are утром and вечером used without any preposition like “в” or “по”? What form are they in?