Learn Hardcore Russian: Дети идут в парк, а я остаюсь дома. - The children are going to the park, but I am staying at home.

идти – to go (on foot) in one direction, one trip, right now or in the near future
ходить – to go (on foot) habitually, repeatedly, or in different directions

In Дети идут в парк, идут (3rd person plural of идти) focuses on a single, concrete movement: the children are going (now) to the park.

If you said Дети ходят в парк, it would mean:

The children (regularly) go to the park / They are in the habit of going to the park,

not that they’re on their way right now in this specific situation.

Why is the conjunction а used instead of и between the two parts?

Both а and и can be translated as and, but they are used differently:

и just adds information: X and Y (without contrast).
а links two clauses with a contrast or opposition, often like while / whereas / but.

In Дети идут в парк, а я остаюсь дома, а emphasizes the contrast:

The children are going out somewhere interesting,
but I am doing something different (staying at home).

If you used и instead (Дети идут в парк, и я остаюсь дома), it would sound unusual because it doesn’t highlight that the two actions contrast with each other. А is the natural choice here.

Why is it в парк and not в парке?

The preposition в can take different cases depending on meaning:

В + accusative = movement into / to a place
- в парк – to the park (direction, movement)
В + prepositional = location in / at a place
- в парке – in the park (no movement)

In Дети идут в парк, the children are moving toward the park, so парк is in the accusative case: в парк.

If you wanted to say The children are in the park, you would use:

Дети в парке.

What exactly does дома mean, and how is it different from в доме or домой?

These forms are related but not identical:

дома = at home
- Adverb-like form; neutral, very common
- Я остаюсь дома. – I’m staying at home.
домой = home, to home (direction, movement)
- Used with verbs of movement
- Я иду домой. – I’m going home.
в доме = in the house / inside the building
- More literal, often focusing on the building as a physical object
- Я в доме. – I’m in the house. (location inside the building, not necessarily “at home” emotionally/legally)

In this sentence, остаюсь дома is about remaining at home (not going anywhere), so дома is the right choice.

Why is остаюсь reflexive (ending in -сь)? What does that add?

Оставаться / остаться literally means to remain, to stay.

The reflexive ending -ся / -сь often:

Makes a verb intransitive (no direct object), or
Emphasizes that the subject is somehow affected by the action.

Here, остаюсь (1st person singular of оставаться) just means I stay / I remain and is always reflexive; there is no non‑reflexive everyday alternative with the same meaning.

You can think of:

оставаться дома – to stay (remain) at home
оставлять кого-то дома – to leave someone at home (non‑reflexive, with an object)

So -сь is part of the normal dictionary form here; you can’t drop it.

Can остаюсь be future like I will stay at home, or is it only present?

Остаюсь is present tense, imperfective aspect: I am staying / I stay.

If you want a clear future meaning, you typically use the perfective verb:

Я останусь дома. – I will stay at home.

However, in Russian, present tense imperfective can refer to the near future if the future is scheduled or clearly imminent, especially with motion and similar verbs:

Завтра дети идут в парк, а я остаюсь дома.
– Tomorrow the children are going to the park, and I’m staying at home.

So context can let остаюсь refer to the (near) future, but grammatically it is present imperfective.

Why is it идут and not something like пойдут?

The contrast is imperfective vs perfective:

идти (imperfective) – focuses on the process of going
- Дети идут в парк. – They are (in the process of) going to the park.
пойти (perfective) – focuses on the start / completion of a single trip
- Дети пойдут в парк. – They will go to the park / They will set off to the park.

So:

идут – they’re already on their way now (or very much in progress).
пойдут – we’re talking about the fact they will go (future event), not that they’re already in motion.

In the given sentence, the emphasis is on a current, ongoing action, so идут is natural.

Why do we need я in а я остаюсь дома? Could we just say а остаюсь дома?

You normally need the pronoun я here.

After а, you’re contrasting two different subjects:

Дети (they) – go to the park
я (I) – stay at home

Dropping я in а остаюсь дома would sound incomplete or stylistically odd in standard speech, because:

There’s a clear change of subject,
The contrast is exactly between дети and я, and
The verb остаюсь alone doesn’t carry enough person/subject contrast in this kind of structure to sound natural without the pronoun.

So Дети идут в парк, а я остаюсь дома is the normal, correct form.

What is the difference between идут and something like идут пешком?

идти already implies going on foot (walking).
идти пешком means literally to go on foot and emphasizes on foot even more, often to contrast with going by car, bus, etc.

In most contexts, идут is enough; adding пешком adds extra information:

Дети идут в парк. – The children are going to the park (normally understood as walking).
Дети идут в парк пешком. – The children are going to the park on foot (not by car, etc.).

When do you use идти vs ехать for go in Russian?

Both mean to go, but:

идти – to go on foot (walking)
ехать – to go by vehicle (car, bus, train, bike, etc.)

In the sentence Дети идут в парк, it explicitly means they are walking.

If they are going by car or bus, you’d say:

Дети едут в парк. – The children are going to the park (by vehicle).

How is дети related to ребёнок and дитя? Why not a regular plural like ребёнки?

Russian has some irregular plurals, and children-related words are among them.

ребёнок – a child (singular)
дети – children (plural)

This pair is irregular: the plural is not built by a simple ending like -ы / -и. Instead, it uses a completely different root, similar to English child → children.

Дитя is an old-fashioned or poetic word for child; in modern everyday speech, learners mostly deal with:

один ребёнок – one child
двое детей / много детей – two children / many children

So in Дети идут в парк, дети is the normal plural children.

How do you stress and pronounce the words in Дети идут в парк, а я остаюсь дома?

Stresses (stressed syllables in caps):

ДЕ-ти – children (stress on ДЕ)
и-ДУТ – they go (stress on ДУТ)
в парк – one syllable; v park (v + p are both pronounced)
а – short a sound
я – ya sound
ос-та-ЮСЬ – I stay (stress on ЮСЬ, final syllable with the -юсь ending)
ДО-ма – at home (stress on ДО)

Russian vowel reduction means unstressed о often sounds like a, so:

дома sounds more like дAma (though spelled с о).

Could we change the word order to Я остаюсь дома, а дети идут в парк? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, you can say:

Я остаюсь дома, а дети идут в парк.

The basic meaning remains the same: the children are going to the park; I am staying at home.

Differences:

Original: Дети идут в парк, а я остаюсь дома.
- Slightly more focus on the children’s action first, then my contrasting action.
Changed: Я остаюсь дома, а дети идут в парк.
- Slightly more focus on my staying at home first, then contrast with what the children do.

Both are correct and natural; it’s just a matter of emphasis and context.

Why is there a comma before а?

Russian punctuation rules require a comma before coordinating conjunctions like а, но, однако when they join:

Two independent clauses (each has its own subject and verb).

Here we have:

Дети идут в парк – subject дети, verb идут
я остаюсь дома – subject я, verb остаюсь

Since both are full clauses and are linked by а, Russian puts a comma:

Дети идут в парк, а я остаюсь дома.