Я купил сливы, персики и батон, потому что завтра к нам придут гости.

Купил is past tense, and it also shows masculine singular.

So this form suggests that the speaker is male:

• я купил = I bought said by a man
• я купила = I bought said by a woman

This is a very common feature of Russian past tense: it agrees with gender and number.

This is a question of aspect.

• купил is perfective
• покупал is imperfective

Here, купил is used because the speaker means a completed action: the shopping was done, and the items were bought.

Compare:

• Я купил... = I bought... / I have bought...
• Я покупал... = I was buying... / I used to buy... / I bought... with focus on the process or repeated action

In this sentence, the reason for buying the items is a specific future event, so the completed-result idea fits best.

They are in the accusative plural, because they are the direct objects of купил.

However, for inanimate nouns in Russian, the accusative plural is often the same as the nominative plural. That is why they look like dictionary plural forms:

• сливы = plums
• персики = peaches

So even though they are objects, their form does not change here.

Because батон is an inanimate masculine singular noun, and in Russian the accusative singular of many inanimate masculine nouns is the same as the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: батон
• accusative: батон

That is why after купил you get батон, not батона.

Батон usually means a loaf of white bread, often a long-shaped loaf.

This is important because it is a false friend for English speakers:

• Russian батон does not usually mean English baton

In everyday Russian, if someone says they bought батон, they usually mean bread.

Because the preposition к takes the dative case.

The pronoun мы changes like this:

• nominative: мы = we
• dative: нам = to us

So:

• к нам = to us, or more naturally here, to our place / over to us

This is a very useful phrase to remember as a chunk: к нам.

Literally, к нам means to us, but in sentences about visiting, it often means to our place, over to our house/apartment, or to visit us.

So:

• Завтра к нам придут гости is very naturally understood as Tomorrow guests will come over to us or We’re having guests tomorrow

Russian often uses this structure where English would use a more idiomatic expression.

Because придут is the correct form for a future completed arrival.

• придут = they will come / they will arrive
• приходят = they come / they are coming regularly / habitually
• идут = they are going / they are on the way, depending on context

Since the sentence says завтра, the action is in the future. Also, the idea is that the guests will arrive, so придут works best.

The form придут comes from the verb прийти, which means to come or to arrive.

This verb is a bit irregular, so its forms are worth learning separately:

• infinitive: прийти
• future: приду, придёшь, придёт, придём, придёте, придут

In this sentence, придут agrees with гости, which is plural.

Russian word order is much more flexible than English word order.

In завтра к нам придут гости, putting гости after the verb makes it sound like new information. It has a natural presentation feel, something like:

• Tomorrow, guests are coming over to us
• Tomorrow, we’ll have guests

If you said гости придут к нам завтра, that is also grammatical, but the emphasis would be a little different.

Yes. Russian allows several possible word orders, depending on emphasis.

For example:

• Завтра к нам придут гости
• Гости придут к нам завтра
• К нам завтра придут гости

All of these can be correct.

The original order sounds natural because it goes:

1. time: завтра
2. destination: к нам
3. action: придут
4. new/important information: гости

Because потому что introduces a subordinate clause meaning because.

Russian normally puts a comma before it:

• Я купил..., потому что...

So the sentence is divided into:

• main clause: Я купил сливы, персики и батон
• reason clause: потому что завтра к нам придут гости

This comma is required in standard Russian spelling.

Yes, it could be omitted.

Russian often leaves out subject pronouns when the verb already makes the subject clear:

• Купил сливы, персики и батон...

But я can still be used:

• for clarity
• for contrast
• simply because the speaker wants to state it explicitly

So both are possible, but Я купил... is completely natural.

Because Russian has no articles.

English has:

• a
• the

Russian does not. Whether something is definite or indefinite is understood from context.

So гости can mean:

• guests
• the guests depending on the situation

And батон can mean:

• a loaf
• the loaf again depending on context.

Here, гости is nominative plural, because it is the subject of придут.

The guests are the ones who will come:

• гости придут = the guests will come

This is different from the earlier nouns:

• сливы, персики, батон are objects of купил
• гости is the subject of придут

So the sentence contains both objects and a subject in different clauses.