Questions & Answers about На улице идёт снег.
Why is it на улице, not в улице?
Because на улице is the normal Russian expression for outside / outdoors / in the street.
- улица literally means street
- на улице literally means on the street
- but in many everyday contexts, Russians use it in the broader sense of outside
So in this sentence, На улице идёт снег means something like It’s snowing outside.
В улице is not how Russian expresses this idea.
What case is улице, and why does it have that ending?
улице is in the prepositional case, singular.
The basic form is:
- улица = street
After на when talking about location, Russian often uses the prepositional case:
- на улице = on the street / outside
So:
- nominative: улица
- prepositional: на улице
The ending changes from -а to -е, which is very common for feminine nouns of this type.
Why is идёт used here? Doesn’t идти mean to go?