Breakdown of Пора вернуться домой, пока не начался дождь.
Questions & Answers about Пора вернуться домой, пока не начался дождь.
Пора is a predicative word (a “category of state” word) meaning it’s time. It often forms an impersonal sentence, so there’s no grammatical subject:
- Пора вернуться домой. = It’s time to go back home. If you want to specify who, Russian commonly adds the dative:
- Мне пора вернуться домой. = It’s time for me to go back home.
After пора, Russian normally uses the infinitive to express a general necessity/rightness (“time to do X”):
- Пора + infinitive is the default pattern. Using a finite verb would make it more like a decision/plan:
- Пора вернуться домой. (It’s time to return.)
- Вернёмся домой. (Let’s go back home / We’ll go back home.)
Вернуться is perfective and focuses on the return as a single completed event (getting back home).
Возвращаться is imperfective and focuses on the process or a repeated/ongoing action.
Compare:
- Пора вернуться домой. = time to (get) back home (result).
- Пора возвращаться домой. = time to be heading back / start making your way home (process).