Breakdown of Семинар проходит вечером в университете.
Questions & Answers about Семинар проходит вечером в университете.
The verb проходит is the 3rd person singular of проходить (imperfective).
In this context it means “takes place / is held / happens”. So the sentence is literally:
- Семинар проходит вечером в университете.
= The seminar takes place in the evening at the university.
Russian almost never uses есть to link time/place to an event like English “is”. Instead, you usually use a verb meaning “to take place / to happen / to be held”, such as:
- проходит – is taking place / is held (imperfective, usual/ongoing pattern)
- состоится – will take place (perfective, one specific occasion)
- идёт – is showing / is on (often for films, performances: идёт фильм)
So есть is not appropriate here; проходит expresses that the seminar is happening (on a regular basis or as a scheduled event).
Russian often uses the present tense to describe scheduled or regular events, where English might use the future or the present:
- Семинар проходит вечером.
= The seminar takes place in the evening.
(Could be: every week, regularly, or as part of a timetable.)
If we want to focus on one specific future occurrence, a common option is a perfective verb:
- Семинар состоится вечером. – The seminar will take place in the evening (on that day).
So the present проходит here suggests either a general rule / timetable or something described from a neutral, “calendar-like” perspective.
Вечером is the instrumental singular of вечер (evening).
Russian often uses the instrumental case of time words to express “in/at [time of day]” in a general, adverb-like way:
- утром – in the morning
- днём – in the daytime / in the afternoon
- вечером – in the evening
- ночью – at night
So вечером here is “in the evening” in a general sense, not tied to a particular date or calendar point.
Both вечером and в вечер exist, but they feel different:
вечером (instrumental) – neutral, usual way to say “in the evening” in general:
- Я приду вечером. – I’ll come in the evening.
в вечер (preposition в
- accusative) – very rare and stylistically marked. When used, it tends to sound poetic or highly specific, often referring to a particular evening or metaphorical “evening” (e.g. into the evening as a phase).
In everyday speech for time of day, you should use:
- утром, днём, вечером, ночью.
So in this sentence вечером is the normal, idiomatic choice.
Университете is prepositional case singular after the preposition в.
Russian uses в + prepositional to indicate location (“in/at a place”):
- в университете – in/at the university (where something is)
- в школе – at school
- в парке – in the park
Russian uses в + accusative for movement into a place:
- в университет – to the university (direction, going there)
- в школу – to school
- в парк – to the park
In Семинар проходит вечером в университете, the seminar is located at the university, not moving there, so we use в университете (prepositional).
Russian has no articles (no direct equivalent of a/an/the).
The bare noun семинар can be translated as either “a seminar” or “the seminar”, depending on context:
- Семинар проходит вечером.
could be A seminar takes place in the evening or The seminar takes place in the evening.
Which one is correct in English depends on what the speaker and listener already know:
- If they’ve been talking about a specific seminar, it’s the seminar.
- If they’re introducing this information for the first time and it’s not specific, it might be a seminar.
Russian leaves this to context; English forces you to pick an article in translation.
The given order is neutral:
- Семинар (subject) проходит (verb) вечером (time) в университете (place).
Russian word order is fairly flexible, and you can move parts around to change the emphasis rather than the basic meaning. For example:
Вечером в университете проходит семинар.
Slight emphasis on when/where: In the evening at the university, there is a seminar.В университете вечером проходит семинар.
Slight emphasis on at the university in the evening specifically.Семинар в университете проходит вечером.
Emphasis on the time (the seminar at the university takes place in the evening rather than another time).
All these are grammatical. The default, neutral, informative order is similar to the original sentence.
Yes, they overlap but have different main uses:
проходит (from проходить) – often used for organized, scheduled, or structured events:
- Семинар проходит… – A seminar takes place…
- Конференция проходит раз в год. – The conference takes place once a year.
- Занятие проходит онлайн. – The class is held online.
происходит (from происходить) – more general “to happen / to occur”, especially for events that are not organized or feel more like happenings:
- Что здесь происходит? – What is happening here?
- Происходит что-то странное. – Something strange is going on.
You can say Семинар происходит, but for a formal, scheduled seminar, проходит and состоится are much more natural.
Yes, that is also correct, but it changes the nuance:
Семинар проходит вечером в университете.
– The seminar takes place / is held in the evening at the university.
(Sounds like a regular, ongoing or descriptive statement; timetable-like.)Семинар состоится вечером в университете.
– The seminar will take place in the evening at the university.
(Focus on one specific future event; more like an announcement.)
So проходит = imperfective, describing the event type / schedule;
состоится = perfective, pointing to a particular occurrence.
Russian uses в and на differently:
в – literally “in / inside”, or for many institutions as a place where you are:
- в университете – at / in the university
- в школе – at / in school
- в офисе – at / in the office
на – literally “on”, but also used idiomatically for some institutions and events:
- на заводе – at the factory
- на стадионе – at the stadium
- на концерте – at a concert
- на лекции – at a lecture
For университет the standard preposition for location is в: в университете.
Pronunciation with stress (stressed syllables in caps):
- семаНА́р → [се-ми-НА́Р] – stress on the last syllable.
- проХО́дит → [пра-ХО́-дит] – stress on хо.
- ВЕ́чером → [ВЕ́-че-рам] – stress on ве.
- в университе́те → [в у-ни-вер-си-ТЕ́-те] – stress on те (second to last syllable).
Correct stress is very important in Russian; moving the stress can make words sound strange or be misunderstood.
Yes, but you lose information:
Семинар проходит вечером.
– The seminar takes place in the evening.
(No information about where.)Семинар проходит в университете.
– The seminar takes place at the university.
(No information about when.)Семинар проходит.
– The seminar is taking place / is being held.
(Very general; time and place are unknown or obvious from context.)
The full original sentence gives both time and place.
Grammatically, both are correct and mean the same two facts: in the evening, at the university.
The difference is only very slight emphasis:
вечером в университете
– The first idea you hear is the time (in the evening), then the place.в университете вечером
– The first idea you hear is the place (at the university), then the time.
In normal conversation, both are possible, and the difference is subtle; context and intonation will often matter more than the order.