Неожиданный гость пришёл вечером.

An unexpected guest came in the evening.

Breakdown of Неожиданный гость пришёл вечером.

• гость: the guest
• вечером: in the evening
• прийти: to come
• неожиданный: unexpected

Questions & Answers about Неожиданный гость пришёл вечером.

Why is there no word for a or the in Неожиданный гость пришёл вечером?

Russian has no articles at all. There is no separate word for a/an or the.

The meaning of a vs the is understood from:

• context,
• word order,
• whether something is new or already known in the conversation.

So Неожиданный гость пришёл вечером can be translated depending on context as:

• An unexpected guest came in the evening.
• The unexpected guest came in the evening.

The Russian sentence itself does not force either a or the; English has to choose one when translating.

How do I know that гость is masculine, even though it ends in ь?

In Russian, nouns ending in -ь can be either masculine or feminine. You have to learn the gender of each noun.

Гость is grammatically masculine. You can see this from agreement:

• The adjective is masculine: неожиданный (ending -ый).
• The verb in the past tense is masculine: пришёл (ending -ёл).

If гость were feminine, you would expect:

• неожиданная гостья пришла вечером.
  (feminine noun гостья, feminine adjective неожиданная, feminine verb пришла)

Why does the adjective неожиданный have that particular ending?

Неожиданный is a long-form adjective meaning unexpected. It has:

• masculine,
• singular,
• nominative case,

to agree with гость, which is:

• masculine,
• singular,
• nominative (subject of the sentence).

Masculine nominative adjectives typically end in -ый, -ий, or -ой.
Here: неожиданн + ый → неожиданный.

If the noun changed, the adjective would change too:

• Feminine: неожиданная гостья
• Neuter: неожиданное письмо
• Plural: неожиданные гости

What is the difference between неожиданный and неожиданно?

• Неожиданный is an adjective: unexpected (describes a noun).

  • неожиданный гость – an unexpected guest

• Неожиданно is an adverb: unexpectedly (describes a verb).

  • Гость неожиданно пришёл вечером. – The guest unexpectedly came in the evening.

So:

• неожиданный гость пришёл вечером
  focuses on what kind of guest came (an unexpected one).
• гость неожиданно пришёл вечером
  focuses on how / in what way he came (his arrival was unexpected or sudden).

What verb is пришёл from, and what tense is it?

Пришёл is:

• past tense,
• masculine,
• singular,
• perfective,

from the verb прийти (to come, to arrive on foot).

The full past-tense forms are:

• masculine: пришёл
• feminine: пришла́
• neuter: пришло́
• plural: пришли́

So:

• Неожиданный гость пришёл вечером. – masculine subject
• Неожиданная гостья пришла вечером. – feminine subject
• Неожиданное письмо пришло вечером. – neuter subject
• Неожиданные гости пришли вечером. – plural subject

Why is пришёл used instead of приходил?

Russian has aspect: perfective vs imperfective.

• Прийти (perfective) → пришёл: a single, completed arrival.
• Приходить (imperfective) → приходил: a repeated / habitual / process-type action, or arrival viewed without focus on completion.

In this sentence:

• Неожиданный гость пришёл вечером. describes one concrete, completed event: at some point in the evening, he arrived.

If you said:

• Неожиданный гость приходил вечером. it would usually suggest:
  • he came and left (visited) at some time in the evening, or
  • he used to come in the evenings (depending on context).

For a single, specific arrival, пришёл (perfective) is the natural choice.

How do you pronounce пришёл, and what is special about the letter ё?

Пришёл is pronounced approximately as: [prʲi-ШОЛ]
(with stress on -шёл).

Important points:

• ё is always stressed and pronounced like "yo" in "york" but with more of an "o" sound: [o].
• In many Russian texts, the two dots on ё are omitted, and it is printed as е. So you may see пришел, but it must still be pronounced пришёл.

Other words in the sentence:

• Неожиданный – stress on жи: неожи́данный
• гость – го́сть
• вечером – ве́чером

What case is вечером, and why is there no preposition like в?

Вечером is the instrumental singular of вечер (evening).

For parts of the day, Russian very often uses prepositionless instrumental to mean in the …:

• утром – in the morning
• днём – in / during the day
• вечером – in the evening
• ночью – at night

So пришёл вечером literally means (he) came, in-the-evening.

You do not say в вечером; that would be incorrect. The instrumental alone is the normal way to express this time phrase here.

Can the word order be changed? For example, can I say Вечером пришёл неожиданный гость?

Yes, Russian word order is quite flexible. All of these are grammatically correct:

• Неожиданный гость пришёл вечером.
  Neutral, straightforward: an unexpected guest is the subject; the fact that it was in the evening is added information.

• Гость пришёл вечером, неожиданно.
  Emphasis on the guest and his coming; неожиданно (if you add it) highlights surprise.

• Вечером пришёл неожиданный гость.
  Puts focus on вечером and on the fact that the guest who came then was unexpected. Often used when you are setting the scene (“As for the evening, that’s when an unexpected guest came”).

The basic meaning stays the same (someone unexpected came in the evening), but the focus and what is new/important info can shift with word order.

How would the sentence change if the guest were feminine or plural?

You must change:

• the noun,
• the adjective,
• the past-tense verb,

so they all agree in gender and number.

1. Feminine, singular

   • Неожиданная гостья пришла вечером.
     
     • гостья – feminine form of гость
     • неожиданная – fem. adjective
     • пришла – fem. past tense

2. Plural (mixed or all male)

   • Неожиданные гости пришли вечером.
     
     • неожиданные – plural adjective
     • гости – plural noun
     • пришли – plural past tense

3. Plural, all female – the same verb form пришли is used; only context or feminine nouns/adjectives would show that the group is all female.

What cases are used in the sentence, and what are their functions?

In Неожиданный гость пришёл вечером we have:

1. Неожиданный гость – nominative singular masculine

   • Subject of the sentence (who came? the unexpected guest).

2. Пришёл – finite verb (past tense, perfective, masculine, singular).

3. Вечером – instrumental singular

   • Adverbial modifier of time (when? in the evening).

So the structure is:

• [Nominative subject] + [past-tense verb] + [instrumental of time]
  → Неожиданный гость пришёл вечером.

Could I use приехал instead of пришёл here?

You could, but the nuance changes.

• Пришёл (from прийти) – to come on foot (or in a way where transport is not emphasized).
• Приехал (from приехать) – to arrive by vehicle (car, train, bus, plane, etc.), or with emphasis on the journey by transport.

So:

• Неожиданный гость пришёл вечером.
  – suggests he arrived, probably on foot or without focusing on transport.

• Неожиданный гость приехал вечером.
  – suggests he arrived by some means of transport (drove in, came by train, etc.).

Both are correct; choose the one that matches how he actually arrived or what you want to highlight.