Мы ждали прихода гостей до вечера.

Ждали is the past-tense plural form of ждать (to wait / to expect).

Russian past tense agrees with the subject in:

• gender in the singular
• number in the plural

So:

• я ждал / я ждала
• ты ждал / ты ждала
• он ждал
• она ждала
• мы ждали
• вы ждали
• они ждали

With мы (we), you use the plural form ждали.

Because ждать often takes its object in the genitive case, especially in more formal or bookish constructions like this one.

So:

• dictionary form: приход (arrival)
• genitive singular: прихода

That is why we get ждали прихода = waited for the arrival.

This is a very common pattern:

• ждать поезда
• ждать ответа
• ждать помощи
• ждать прихода гостей

Приход is a noun meaning arrival or coming. It is related to the verbs приходить / прийти (to come / to arrive).

So instead of using a full clause like:

• Мы ждали, что гости придут

Russian can package the idea into a noun:

• Мы ждали прихода гостей

Literally, this is something like We waited for the guests’ arrival.

This kind of noun-based phrasing is very normal in Russian.

Because гостей depends on the noun прихода.

The phrase приход гостей means:

• the arrival of guests
• or more literally, guests’ arrival

In Russian, one noun often modifies another noun by going into the genitive case:

• дом брата = brother’s house / the house of the brother
• начало урока = the beginning of the lesson
• приход гостей = the arrival of the guests / guests’ arrival

So in прихода гостей:

• прихода is genitive because of ждали
• гостей is genitive because it depends on приход(а)

In form, гостей can match both genitive plural and accusative plural for an animate noun like гости.

But in this sentence, inside прихода гостей, it is functioning as genitive plural, because it depends on the noun прихода.

So grammatically here it means:

• arrival of the guests

not directly:

• waited the guests

Both are possible, but they are not exactly the same.

• Мы ждали гостей до вечера.
  = We waited for the guests until evening.

• Мы ждали прихода гостей до вечера.
  = We waited for the guests’ arrival until evening.

The version with прихода focuses more explicitly on the event of their arriving. It can sound a bit more precise, and sometimes a bit more formal or literary.

The shorter version ждали гостей is often more natural in everyday speech.

До is a preposition meaning until, up to, or before depending on context, and it requires the genitive case.

So:

• вечер = evening
• до вечера = until evening

This is a standard pattern:

• до утра = until morning
• до ночи = until night
• до конца = until the end
• до вечера = until evening

Usually it means the waiting continued up to evening. It marks the time limit of the action.

In many contexts, that suggests that by evening the waiting ended, but the phrase itself mainly tells you how long the waiting lasted.

So the focus is:

• the waiting went on until evening

Whether they actually arrived or not would depend on the wider context.

Because the sentence describes an ongoing or extended action in the past: they were in a state of waiting for some time.

The imperfective ждать is natural for:

• duration
• process
• repeated or ongoing action

That fits well with до вечера:

• Мы ждали ... до вечера = the waiting lasted until evening

A perfective verb would usually shift the meaning and would not fit this sentence in the same way.

No, Russian word order is relatively flexible.

Мы ждали прихода гостей до вечера is the neutral order.

But you could also move parts around for emphasis:

• До вечера мы ждали прихода гостей.
• Прихода гостей мы ждали до вечера.

These versions still mean roughly the same thing, but the emphasis changes:

• До вечера first emphasizes the time span
• Прихода гостей first emphasizes what was being awaited

The original order is the most straightforward and neutral.

Russian has no articles.

So nouns like гостей or вечера do not have separate words for the or a/an. Whether English uses the guests, guests, the evening, or evening depends on context and translation choices.

Russian expresses definiteness through:

• context
• word order
• intonation
• sometimes vocabulary choices

So learners should not try to look for a direct Russian equivalent of the in this sentence—there isn’t one.

The standard stress is:

Мы жда́ли прихо́да госте́й до ве́чера.

Word by word:

• мы
• жда́ли
• прихо́да
• госте́й
• до
• ве́чера

Stress is important in Russian, because it is not always predictable and can affect pronunciation a lot.