Learn Hardcore Russian: Я иду от дома к парку.

идти (я иду) – one‑direction, one‑time movement, “I am going (now) in one specific direction.”
ходить (я хожу) – multi‑direction, repeated or habitual movement, “I (usually) go, I walk (there regularly, back and forth).”
пойти (я пойду) – the perfective partner of идти, focusing on the start of the movement, “I will set off / I’ll go.”

In Я иду от дома к парку, the speaker is describing a single, concrete movement that is happening now, going in one direction from home to the park. That’s exactly the meaning of иду (from идти).

Я иду от дома к парку. – I’m currently on my way.
Я хожу от дома к парку. – I (tend to) walk from my home to the park (habitually).
Я пойду от дома к парку. – I will (at some point) go from home to the park / I’ll set off to go from home to the park.

What cases are дома and парку in, and why?

Both nouns are in oblique cases triggered by prepositions:

от дома – дом is in the genitive singular (дома).
- Preposition от (“from, away from”) requires the genitive:
  - от стола, от окна, от брата, от дома
к парку – парк is in the dative singular (парку).
- Preposition к (“to, towards”) requires the dative:
  - к столу, к окну, к брату, к парку

So the structure is:

от
- genitive = from (a point of origin)
к
- dative = to / towards (a destination or goal)

Why is it от дома and not из дома? Don’t both mean “from home”?

Both от and из can be translated as “from,” but they focus on different things:

из
- genitive – “out of, from inside something.”
  - Я иду из дома. – I’m going out of the house / leaving the house (from inside).
от
- genitive – “from, away from (a point), from the vicinity of.”
  - Я иду от дома. – I’m going away from the house / from the area of my home.

In Я иду от дома к парку, the idea is more like a route:

starting at the house (as a point on the map)
going toward the park.

If you say из дома, you emphasize that you are physically leaving the interior of the house. If you include both start and end explicitly, you usually pair из with в:

Я иду из дома в парк. – I’m going out of the house into the park.

Your original sentence with от дома к парку is more neutral about whether you were inside or just near the house; it focuses on the path from point A to point B.

Why is it к парку and not в парк?

Both can often be translated as “to the park,” but they’re not identical:

к
- dative – “to, towards, up to (near) something,” highlights approach or direction.
- Я иду к парку. – I’m going towards the park / in the direction of the park (maybe to the area near it; going up to it).
в
- accusative – “into, to (entering a place),” highlights entering the space.
- Я иду в парк. – I’m going (into) the park.

So:

от дома к парку – describes a route on a map: from the house toward the park.
из дома в парк – describes movement from inside one place into another place.

In everyday speech, к парку can sometimes overlap in meaning with в парк, but the nuance is “towards” vs “into.”

Does дома here mean “at home” or “of the house”? It looks like the same word.

Formally, there are two different uses with the same form до́ма (stress on the first syllable):

Adverb “at home”
- Я дома. – I am at home.
Genitive singular of “дом” (house): “of the house / from the house”
- рядом с дома is wrong; we say рядом с домом (“next to the house”),
- but от дома is correct: Я иду от дома. – I’m going from (my) house.

In Я иду от дома, дома is genitive singular after от.
You can’t understand “at home” here; the grammar forces the genitive reading. Context plus prepositions tell you which meaning is intended.

What is the literal structure/word‑for‑word order of this sentence?

The sentence Я иду от дома к парку can be mapped quite literally:

Я – I
иду – go (on foot, one direction; “am going”)
от – from
дома – (the) house (genitive: “of the house / from the house”)
к – to / towards
парку – (the) park (dative: “to the park”)

So the structure is:

[Subject] [go] [from + GEN] [to + DAT]
→ “I go from (the) house to (the) park.”

This word order — от [source] к [goal] — is the most natural way to describe movement “from X to Y.”

Could I say Я иду к парку от дома instead? Is that wrong?

It’s grammatically correct, but it sounds less natural and a bit awkward for this simple sentence.

In Russian, the typical and most idiomatic order for a path is:

от [starting point] к [destination]

So:

Я иду от дома к парку. – most natural.

If you say:

Я иду к парку от дома.

it’s still understandable, but the listener may momentarily expect от дома to refer to something closer to the verb or think you’re emphasizing к парку first. It can be used in some contexts for emphasis or contrast, but as a neutral sentence, от дома к парку is better.

Why is it к парку and not к парк or к парку́? How does the ending work?

The noun парк is a regular masculine noun. Its singular forms:

Nominative: парк – the park (dictionary form)
Genitive: парка – of the park
Dative: парку – to / for the park
Accusative: парк – (same as nominative, for inanimate)
Instrumental: парком – with / by means of the park
Prepositional: о парке – about the park / in the park (after some prepositions)

The preposition к always takes the dative, so you must use парку, not the bare stem парк or another case.

Stress: it’s normally па́рк / па́рку, with stress on the only vowel. There is no form паркý.

Can I omit я and just say Иду от дома к парку?

Yes, you can. Russian often drops the subject pronoun when it’s clear from context:

Я иду от дома к парку.
Иду от дома к парку.

Both mean “I’m going from home to the park.” The second one is a bit more colloquial and is very natural in spoken language, especially if the subject “I” is already obvious from the situation or earlier sentences.

You usually keep я if you need emphasis or contrast:

Я иду от дома к парку, а он едет в центр. – I am going from home to the park, but he is going to the center (by vehicle).

Does иду mean only “I am going right now,” or can it also refer to the near future?

Иду is the present tense of идти, so its primary meaning is “I am going (now)” or “I’m in the process of going.”

However, in context, Russian present tense often covers the near future the way English “I’m going tomorrow” does:

Я иду от дома к парку через пять минут.
– I’m going from home to the park in five minutes. (near‑future plan)

So:

Without any time adverb, Я иду от дома к парку is normally interpreted as “I’m currently on my way from home to the park.”
With a future time reference, it can describe a scheduled or intended action in the near future.

Why is иду used here instead of еду? What’s the difference?

Russian distinguishes between going on foot and going by vehicle / transport:

идти / ходить – to go on foot, to walk
ехать / ездить – to go by transport (car, bus, train, etc.)

In your sentence:

Я иду от дома к парку.
– I’m walking from home to the park (on foot).

If you’re going by car, bus, bicycle, etc., you would say:

Я еду от дома к парку.
– I’m going (by some vehicle) from home to the park.

Everything else in the sentence (от дома к парку) stays the same; only the verb changes depending on the mode of movement.

Is there any special pronunciation when saying от дома and к парку together in speech?

Yes, there are some small phonetic details native speakers use:

от дома
- Spelled: от дома
- Typically pronounced more like [ад до́ма].
- The final т in от assimilates to the following voiced д (in дома), becoming voiced д, so you get something close to “ad doma.”
к парку
- Spelled: к парку
- Usually heard almost as one cluster [к па́рку]. The к is short and unreleased; you don’t insert a vowel between к and п.

These assimilations are standard in natural Russian speech, but in careful pronunciation (e.g., in slow dictation) you will still perceive the separate words.

When do I use к and when ко? Could I say ко парку?

The basic preposition is к. The form ко is used only before certain consonant clusters where plain к would be awkward to pronounce, mainly before:

м, н, л, в, sometimes д, when followed by another consonant:
- ко мне – to me
- ко многим – to many
- ко входу – to the entrance
- ко всем – to everyone

With парк, speakers naturally say к парку, not ко парку. The cluster [кп] is not considered difficult enough to require ко.

So:

Correct: к парку
Very unusual / basically not used: ко парку.