Breakdown of Рядом с эскалатором стоят турникеты, через которые нужно проходить по проездному.
Questions & Answers about Рядом с эскалатором стоят турникеты, через которые нужно проходить по проездному.
Рядом с is a fixed expression meaning next to / close to, and it always takes the instrumental case (с + instrumental).
You could also say:
- возле эскалатора
- около эскалатора
- у эскалатора
These all mean near the escalator and take the genitive.
The choice here is mostly stylistic: рядом с sounds very neutral and common in everyday speech and slightly emphasizes being right beside something.
Because the preposition с in the phrase рядом с always requires the instrumental case.
So:
- nominative: эскалатор
- instrumental: эскалатором
Compare:
- рядом с домом – next to the house
- рядом с метро – next to the metro
Don’t confuse this with с эскалатора (genitive), which would mean from the escalator (movement down/off something).
Russian often uses verbs of position (стоят – stand, лежат – lie, висят – hang) to talk about where objects are.
Турникеты стоят literally means the turnstiles are standing, but functionally it means there are turnstiles (located) there.
You could say:
- Рядом с эскалатором есть турникеты – grammatically correct, but sounds less natural here.
- Рядом с эскалатором турникеты – possible in very specific contexts (like a headline or note), but in normal speech you want a verb, so стоят is best.
Yes, Турникеты стоят рядом с эскалатором is perfectly correct.
The difference is in emphasis and information order:
- Рядом с эскалатором стоят турникеты – first focuses on the place (near the escalator), then tells you what is there.
- Турникеты стоят рядом с эскалатором – first focuses on turnstiles, then adds where they are.
Both are normal; the original version makes “near the escalator” the starting point of the description.
Турникет is a masculine inanimate noun.
In the sentence we have:
- nominative plural: турникеты
It is the grammatical subject of стоят:
- (Что?) Турникеты – (что делают?) стоят.
So турникеты is in nominative plural, agreeing with the verb стоят (3rd person plural).
Которые is a relative pronoun referring back to турникеты.
Since турникеты is plural, которые must also be plural.
The preposition через always takes the accusative, so которые here is plural accusative. For inanimate nouns/pronouns in plural, nominative and accusative look the same:
- nominative plural: которые
- accusative plural: которые (same form here)
Через которые literally means through which (ones), i.e. through which turnstiles.
Через is the normal preposition for passing across/through a boundary or obstacle: roads, bridges, turnstiles, borders.
Сквозь usually emphasizes moving through the inside of something (forest, fog, wall, glass) and would sound odd with turnstiles.
You could say в которые нужно проходить, but that slightly shifts the image to enter into them rather than go through them as a barrier.
For turnstiles in transport contexts, проходить через турникеты is the standard phrase.
Нужно here is an impersonal modal word: it expresses necessity without a grammatical subject.
Literally: it is necessary to pass through (them).
The implied subject is “people / you / passengers” but it isn’t stated.
If you want to make the person explicit, you use the dative:
- Вам нужно проходить по проездному. – You need to go through using a pass.
- Пассажирам нужно проходить по проездному. – Passengers need to…
So нужно + infinitive is a common way in Russian to express rules and obligations in a neutral, impersonal way.
Imperfective проходить is used because the sentence states a general rule / repeated action: every time you go through the turnstiles, you must use a pass.
Imperfective with нужно is typical when talking about:
- rules: В метро нужно покупать билет.
- habits or usual actions: Утром мне нужно пить кофе.
Perfective пройти would focus on a single completed action:
- Вам нужно пройти через турникет. – You need to go through the turnstile (this time, right now).
In the original sentence, the rule is general, so imperfective проходить is correct.
The preposition по has many meanings; one of them is by means of / using. In that sense it takes the dative case.
So:
- nominative: проездной
- dative: проездному
Проходить по проездному literally means to go through using a transport pass.
Similar patterns:
- платить по карте – to pay by card
- ударить по мячу – to hit the ball (using the ball as the target)
- звонить по телефону – to call by phone
Originally, проездной is an adjective meaning related to riding/transport (from проезд – a ride).
In full form you often see проездной билет – travel pass / season ticket.
In everyday speech, the noun билет is dropped and проездной is used as a noun:
- Купить проездной – to buy a travel pass
- Показать проездной – to show your pass
So grammatically it is an adjective used as a masculine noun; here it is in the dative singular: по проездному.
You could, but there are nuances:
- по билету – by/with a ticket (could be a single-ride paper ticket)
- по проездному билету – explicitly by a travel pass / season ticket
- по проездной карте – by a transport card (plastic or electronic card)
- по проездному – default colloquial way to say using your pass (usually a longer-term or stored-value pass, not a one-time paper ticket).
In many cities проездной is understood specifically as a pass that gives you the right to multiple rides over a period, not just one journey.