Learn Hardcore Russian: Я ухожу из дома утром.

идти – to go (on foot), one direction, a specific movement: Я иду домой (I’m going home [now, on foot]).
ходить – to go (on foot) in general, repeatedly or in different directions: Я хожу в школу (I go to school).
уходить – to go away, to leave (from somewhere): Я ухожу из дома (I am leaving / I leave the house).

In Я ухожу из дома утром, the key idea is leaving/going away from the house, not just the fact of going somewhere. That is exactly what уходить expresses, so ухожу is the natural verb here.

Using иду or хожу would change the meaning:

Я иду из дома – grammatically possible, but sounds odd; it describes the process of walking from the house, not the act of leaving as a separate event.
Я хожу из дома – sounds wrong in standard Russian; ходить doesn’t normally combine with из дома in this sense.

What is the aspect and tense of ухожу? Does it describe present or future?

ухожу is the present tense form of the imperfective verb уходить.
Imperfective aspect focuses on an ongoing or repeated action, not on the result.

So Я ухожу из дома утром can mean:

I am leaving the house in the morning (right now) – if you’re speaking while you are in the process of leaving.
I (usually / regularly) leave the house in the morning – a habitual action.

To talk about a single, future act of leaving with focus on completion, Russians usually use the perfective verb уйти:

Я уйду из дома утром – I will leave the house in the morning (one specific time).

Could we say Я выхожу из дома утром instead? What is the difference between уходить and выходить?

Yes, Я выхожу из дома утром is grammatically correct, but there is a nuance:

выходить (выйти) focuses on going out of an enclosed space, crossing the threshold:
- Я выхожу из дома – I go out of the house (physically step outside).
уходить (уйти) focuses on leaving / going away, not just stepping out the door:
- Я ухожу из дома – I leave home (I depart from home, I’m gone, not just standing outside on the porch).

In many everyday contexts, especially when you mean your daily routine, Russians prefer уходить из дома to talk about when they leave home for work, school, etc.
выходить из дома is also possible, but it highlights the act of going out of the building more literally.

Why do we say из дома, not от дома or с дома for from the house?

Russian has several prepositions that can correspond to English from, but they are used in different situations:

из – from inside something (interior of a building, room, city, country, etc.)
- из дома – from (the inside of) the house
- из комнаты – from the room
от – from near / from the vicinity of a person or object, or from a starting point
- от дома до работы – from the house to work
- от друга – from a friend
с – from the surface / top of something, or from an open elevated place
- со стола – from the table
- с крыши – from the roof

In Я ухожу из дома утром, you are leaving from inside the house, so из is the correct preposition.

Why is it дома and not дом after из?

The preposition из always requires the genitive case.

The noun дом (house/home) is declined like this (singular):

Nominative: дом (subject: Этот дом большой – This house is big)
Genitive: дома (after из: из дома – from the house)
Dative: дому
Accusative: дом
Instrumental: домом
Prepositional: о доме

So из дома uses:

из – preposition from (inside)
дома – genitive singular of дом

Note: дома can also mean at home as an adverb (for example, Я дома – I am at home), but in из дома it is purely the genitive form of the noun.

Could we say Я ухожу домой утром? Would that mean the same thing?

No, that would mean the opposite direction:

домой means (to) home, direction towards home.
из дома means from home / out of the house, direction away from home.

So:

Я ухожу из дома утром – I leave the house in the morning.
Я ухожу домой утром – I go home in the morning (I leave some other place and go to my home).

Why is утром used without a preposition? Why not в утром?

Утром is one of several time expressions in Russian that use the instrumental case without a preposition to mean “in the morning / at night / in the evening”:

утром – in the morning
днём – in the daytime
вечером – in the evening
ночью – at night
зимой – in winter
летом – in summer

So Я ухожу из дома утром literally is “I leave from the house in-the-morning”.

You would not say в утром. Instead, if you want to use в, you use a more specific form:

в это утро – on this morning
в то утро – on that morning

But the general routine statement is naturally утром without any preposition.

What case is утром, and how is it formed from утро?

The basic noun is утро – morning (nominative singular).
утром is the instrumental singular of утро.

The instrumental is often used to express time when something happens, especially with parts of the day and seasons. That’s why утром alone means in the morning.

So structurally:

утро (Nominative) → утром (Instrumental, used adverbially: at/in the morning).

Can we change the word order, for example to Утром я ухожу из дома? Does that change the meaning?

Yes, Russian word order is flexible, and all of these are possible:

Я ухожу из дома утром.
Я утром ухожу из дома.
Утром я ухожу из дома.

They all describe the same basic situation. The differences are about emphasis and style:

Я ухожу из дома утром. – neutral, straightforward.
Я утром ухожу из дома. – slight emphasis on утром but still centered on I leave.
Утром я ухожу из дома. – strong initial focus on утром (When? – In the morning…).

In everyday speech, all of them sound natural. The last version might be more likely if you’re contrasting times, e.g., Утром я ухожу из дома, а вечером возвращаюсь.

Does Я ухожу из дома утром mean I am leaving the house in the morning (right now) or I (usually) leave the house in the morning?

It can mean either, depending on context and situation:

I am leaving (now / today) in the morning – if you are talking about what is happening or planned today or in a specific situation, especially if said on that morning.
I (normally / always) leave the house in the morning – if you are describing your habit or routine.

Russian present imperfective (here: ухожу) covers both:

current ongoing action or near future
repeated / habitual actions

In English you distinguish I am leaving vs I leave, but in Russian the same form ухожу can express both; the context clarifies which is meant.

How would I say I will leave the house in the morning in Russian?

To focus on a single, completed future action, Russian uses the perfective:

Most natural options:

Я уйду из дома утром. – I will leave the house in the morning (go away from home).
Я выйду из дома утром. – I will go out of the house in the morning (emphasis on going out of the building).

Both are correct; уйду emphasizes leaving / departing, выйду emphasizes going out.

How would I ask What time do you leave the house in the morning?

Common, natural questions:

Во сколько ты утром уходишь из дома?
Во сколько ты уходишь из дома утром?

Both mean roughly: At what time do you leave the house in the morning?

во сколько – at what time
ты уходишь – you leave (are leaving)
из дома – from the house
утром – in the morning