Куда ты идёшь после работы?

Because куда asks about destination: to where?

• Куда ты идёшь? = Where are you going?
• Где ты идёшь? would mean something like Where are you walking? or In what place are you going?, which is a different idea.

A useful contrast:

• где = where, in what place
• куда = where to
• откуда = where from

Since this sentence is about movement toward a destination, куда is the correct question word.

Идёшь is the 2nd person singular present tense form of идти.

So it matches ты:

• я иду = I am going
• ты идёшь = you are going
• он / она идёт = he / she is going

The ending -ёшь tells you it goes with ты.

This is a very common question because Russian has two related verbs where English often just uses go.

• идти = to go in one direction, to be on the way, to be going now
• ходить = to go regularly, to go around, to make repeated trips, or to be able to go on foot

In Куда ты идёшь после работы?, the speaker is asking about a specific destination after work, so идёшь is natural.

Compare:

• Куда ты идёшь после работы? = Where are you going after work?
  → one specific trip
• Куда ты ходишь после работы? = Where do you go after work?
  → regularly, as a habit

Not always in everyday speech.

Literally, идти is connected with going in one direction, often on foot. But in many real-life contexts, Russian speakers use it more broadly, especially when the focus is on where someone is headed, not strictly on the method of transport.

So in this sentence, Куда ты идёшь после работы? is often understood simply as Where are you going after work?

If you wanted to be more neutral about transportation, Russian can also use forms of ехать for travel by vehicle, but everyday usage is not always perfectly literal.

Yes, Russian often drops subject pronouns when they are clear from the verb ending.

So both of these are possible:

• Куда ты идёшь после работы?
• Куда идёшь после работы?

Because идёшь already shows you singular, the sentence still makes sense without ты.

Including ты can make it:

• a little clearer
• a little more direct
• sometimes slightly more personal or emphatic

In informal speech, both versions are very common.

Because после requires the genitive case.

The base form is:

• работа = work, job

After после, it changes to the genitive singular:

• после работы = after work

This is a standard pattern:

• после урока = after the lesson
• после фильма = after the film
• после встречи = after the meeting

So работы is there because of grammar, not because the meaning changes dramatically.

It means after work or after finishing work.

In this sentence, it usually refers to the time after someone’s workday ends. It does not normally mean after the act of working in a general sense. It is the natural everyday expression for after work.

So the sentence is asking about someone’s destination once their job or shift is over.

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

The neutral order here is:

• Куда ты идёшь после работы?

But other orders are possible depending on emphasis:

• После работы куда ты идёшь?
  Focuses more on after work
• Ты куда идёшь после работы?
  Slightly more conversational, sometimes more pointed

Even when the word order changes, the basic meaning stays the same. Russian uses word order partly for emphasis and style, not only for grammar.

Идёшь is pronounced roughly like ee-DYOSH.

The letter ё is important because it shows both:

• the sound yo
• the stress

So the stress is on that syllable: идёшь

In careful writing, ё helps a lot. In many printed texts, Russians often write е instead of ё, so you may sometimes see идешь, but the correct pronunciation is still идёшь.

It is informal, because it uses ты.

If you are speaking to:

• a friend
• a family member
• a child
• someone you know well

then ты is appropriate.

For a formal or polite version, use вы:

• Куда вы идёте после работы?

That means Where are you going after work? in a polite or plural form.

Grammatically, идёшь is present tense, but Russian present-tense forms of imperfective verbs can also be used for a planned near future, depending on context.

So this sentence can mean:

• Where are you going after work?
  asking about today’s plan after work
• literally, Where are you going after work? with present-form grammar

This is similar to English using the present continuous for future plans:

• Where are you going after work?

So even though the verb form is present, the real meaning often points to what the person plans to do next.

Usually, no. The more natural translation here is Where are you going after work?

That is because идёшь from идти suggests:

• a specific trip
• current movement
• an immediate or near-future destination

If you want Where do you go after work? in the sense of a habitual routine, Russian would more naturally use ходить:

• Куда ты ходишь после работы?

So the choice between идти and ходить is one of the main clues about whether the meaning is specific or habitual.