Learn Hardcore Russian: Гид ведёт туристов по городу. - The guide leads the tourists around the city.

Гид – noun, nominative singular, masculine in gender. It is the subject: the guide.
ведёт – verb, 3rd person singular, present tense, imperfective, from вести (to lead, to guide). It is the main verb: leads / is leading.
туристов – noun, accusative plural, masculine, animate. It is the direct object: tourists.
по городу – prepositional phrase:
- по – preposition, here used with the dative case to express movement around/through a place.
- городу – noun город in dative singular: around/through the city.

So syntactically: Subject (Гид) + Verb (ведёт) + Object (туристов) + Adverbial (по городу).

Why is it туристов and not туристы?

In Russian, the form of a noun changes with its grammatical case and animacy.

туристы is nominative plural: it is used for the subject of the sentence (the tourists (do something)).
туристов is accusative plural of an animate noun: it is used for the direct object when people or animals are involved.

Rule:
For animate masculine nouns in the plural, the accusative plural looks like the genitive plural.

Nominative plural: туристы – the tourists (as subject)
Genitive plural: туристов
Accusative plural (animate): туристов – used here as the object of ведёт.

So we say Гид ведёт туристов because the guide is acting on the tourists, and they are animate.

What case is городу in по городу, and why?

Городу is in the dative singular of город.

With the preposition по, Russian often uses the dative case to express movement within, around, or through an area:

по городу – around the city / through the city
по лесу – through the forest
по парку – around the park

Declension of город (singular, main cases):

Nominative: город – the city (subject)
Genitive: города
Dative: городу – used after по here
Accusative: город
Prepositional: о городе

So по + dative here gives the meaning “around/through the city,” which fits a guided tour.

Why do we use по городу and not в городе?

Both are possible, but they mean different things:

по городу (dative) focuses on movement within the city, “around/through the city.”
- Гид ведёт туристов по городу. – The guide is leading the tourists around the city (they are moving from place to place).
в городе (prepositional) focuses on location in the city (where something happens), not the movement route:
- Гид работает в городе. – The guide works in the city.
- Экскурсия проходит в городе. – The tour takes place in the city.

So for the idea of a route (walking/going from place to place on a tour), по городу is the natural choice.

What tense and aspect is ведёт, and how do I translate it: “leads” or “is leading”?

Ведёт is:

Present tense
3rd person singular
Imperfective aspect
From the verb вести (unidirectional “to lead, to guide”).

Russian has one present tense form for both:

English simple present: The guide leads tourists around the city.
English present continuous: The guide is leading tourists around the city.

So Гид ведёт туристов по городу can be translated as either, depending on context.
In isolation, it most naturally sounds like a description of what is happening now:
The guide is leading the tourists around the city.

What is the difference between вести (ведёт) and водить (водит)? Could we say Гид водит туристов по городу?

Вести / водить is a typical Russian pair of motion verbs:

вести (unidirectional, imperfective) – movement in one direction, typically at one time; “to be leading (now), to lead in a single instance”.
- Он ведёт туристов по городу. – He is (right now) leading the tourists around the city.
водить (multidirectional, imperfective) – movement back and forth, in different directions, or habitual repeated action.
- Он водит туристов по городу. – He (regularly) gives tours around the city / He works as a guide.

So:

Гид ведёт туристов по городу. – more like this particular tour happening now.
Гид водит туристов по городу. – more like his usual job / something he does regularly.

Both are grammatically correct; the choice is about single ongoing tour (ведёт) vs habitual work or repeated tours (водит).

Why doesn’t Russian use a word for “the” or “a” in this sentence?

Russian has no articles (no equivalent of English a/an/the). Whether you mean “a guide” or “the guide” is understood from context, not from a separate word.

So Гид ведёт туристов по городу can mean:

A guide is leading tourists around the city.
The guide is leading the tourists around the city.

If earlier in the text you already mentioned a specific guide and specific tourists, listeners will naturally interpret гид and туристов as the guide and the tourists. If not, it usually sounds like some guide and some tourists.

What gender is гид? How do we refer to a female guide?

Гид is grammatically masculine in Russian:

этот гид – this (male) guide (masculine demonstrative)
It declines like a regular masculine noun.

However, гид can refer to a person of any sex, like doctor or teacher in English.

To show that the guide is female, you change the adjectives and pronouns, not the noun:

Наш гид очень опытный. Она хорошо ведёт туристов по городу.
Our guide is very experienced. She guides tourists around the city well.

There is also a more traditional word экскурсовод (tour guide), also grammatically masculine, but again used for both men and women.

Can the word order change? For example, can I say Туристов гид ведёт по городу?

Yes, Russian word order is flexible, because roles are shown by case endings, not position.

Possible variants (all grammatically correct):

Гид ведёт туристов по городу. – neutral, standard: The guide is leading the tourists around the city.
Гид по городу ведёт туристов. – slight emphasis on по городу (where).
Туристов гид ведёт по городу. – puts туристов in front, often to emphasize the tourists (maybe contrasting with some other group).
По городу гид ведёт туристов. – emphasizes the route “around the city”.

The basic meaning stays the same, but the focus shifts. For a learner, the original order Subject – Verb – Object – Place is the safest and most neutral.

How do you pronounce ведёт and why is there ё instead of е?

Ведёт is pronounced approximately as: [vye-DYOT] (with stress on the second syllable).

Key points:

The letter ё is always stressed and pronounced “yo” (like “your” without the r): [yo].
So ведёт is ве-дёт, not ведет [ve-DET].

In many printed Russian texts, people write е instead of ё, so you might see ведет.
But the correct, fully marked spelling in dictionaries is ведёт.

This verb form is:

infinitive: вести́
3rd person singular present: он ведёт – he (she) leads / is leading.

Why is the object form туристов the same as the genitive plural? Is that always so?

This happens because туристы (tourists) are animate.

In Russian:

For inanimate nouns, the accusative plural = nominative plural.
- Я вижу дома. – I see houses. (дома = nominative plural)
For animate nouns (people and most animals), the accusative plural = genitive plural.
- Я вижу туристов. – I see tourists. (туристов = genitive plural form)

So:

Nominative plural: туристы – tourists (as subject)
Genitive plural: туристов
Accusative plural (animate): туристов – tourists (as object)

This pattern (accusative = genitive for animate) is standard for masculine and plural animate nouns in Russian.

How would this sentence look in the past or future?

Using the same verb вести (imperfective, unidirectional):

Past tense (imperfective) – was leading (process in the past)
- Гид вёл туристов по городу. – The (male) guide was leading the tourists around the city.
- Гид вела туристов по городу. – The (female) guide was leading the tourists around the city.
Future tense (perfective) – single completed action, from повести (perfective partner of вести):
- Завтра гид поведёт туристов по городу. – Tomorrow the guide will lead the tourists around the city (one tour).

You can also make a compound future with the imperfective for a more process-oriented future:

Гид будет вести туристов по городу. – The guide will be leading tourists around the city.

All of these keep the same basic structure with гид, туристов, and по городу.