Я встал и пошёл к окну.

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Breakdown of Я встал и пошёл к окну.

• пойти: to go
• и: and
• к: to

Questions & Answers about Я встал и пошёл к окну.

Why is it встал and пошёл, not встала and пошла?

Because Russian past tense verbs agree with the speaker’s gender in the singular.

• встал, пошёл = masculine speaker
• встала, пошла = feminine speaker
• встало, пошло = neuter
• встали, пошли = plural

So this sentence tells you that the speaker is being presented as male, or at least grammatically masculine.

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What exactly does встал mean here?

Встал is the past tense of встать, a perfective verb. In this sentence it means got up or stood up.

That is important because English stood can describe a state, but Russian встал describes the action of rising to one’s feet.

Compare:

• встал = got up, stood up
• стоял = was standing

So Я встал is not I was standing, but I got up / I stood up.

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Why is пошёл used instead of шёл?