Утром я зашла в отдел кадров, чтобы отнести заявление на отпуск и новую справку.

In the morning, I stopped by the HR department to bring a leave application and a new certificate.

Breakdown of Утром я зашла в отдел кадров, чтобы отнести заявление на отпуск и новую справку.

• я: I
• в: to
• новый: new
• и: and

Questions & Answers about Утром я зашла в отдел кадров, чтобы отнести заявление на отпуск и новую справку.

Why is the verb зашла and not зашёл or пришла?

Зашла is the feminine singular past tense of зайти.

That tells you two things:

1. The speaker is female.
2. The verb is specifically зайти, not just идти or приходить.

Here, зайти means something like to stop by / to go in / to drop in. It often suggests a brief visit to a place on the way somewhere or for a specific purpose.

So я зашла в отдел кадров is not just I went to HR, but more like:

• I stopped by the HR department
• I went into HR

If the speaker were male, it would be я зашёл.

What is the role of Утром here, and why is there no preposition?

Утром means in the morning.

Russian often uses the instrumental case without a preposition for time expressions like this:

• утром = in the morning
• днём = in the daytime / during the day
• вечером = in the evening
• ночью = at night

So Утром я зашла... means In the morning, I stopped by...

This is a very common pattern, and you should learn these expressions as set adverbial forms.