На даче над цветами летали бабочка и пчела.

Because Russian usually says на даче to mean at the dacha / at the summer cottage / out at the country place.

Even though дача is a building, the expression often refers not just to the house itself, but to the whole place: the house, garden, yard, and property. So Russian idiomatically uses на here.

• на даче = at the dacha
• в доме = in the house

So in this sentence, На даче sets the scene as at the dacha.

Даче is in the prepositional case singular.

That is because на can take the prepositional case when it means in/on/at a location.

• дача → nominative singular
• на даче → prepositional singular

So На даче literally means something like at the dacha.

Цветами is instrumental plural.

The preposition над normally requires the instrumental case, and it means above / over.

• цветы = flowers
• над цветами = over the flowers

So:

• над
  • instrumental
• цветами = instrumental plural of цветы

Летали is the past tense plural of летать.

Here it means were flying or flew around, depending on context. In this sentence, it most naturally suggests ongoing or repeated motion in the air, so English often uses were flying.

Important details:

• летать is imperfective
• imperfective often describes an ongoing action, repeated action, or general activity
• so летали does not sound like one single completed flight from point A to point B

In this sentence, it gives the picture of a butterfly and a bee moving around over the flowers.

Because together they form a compound subject:

• бабочка и пчела = a butterfly and a bee

That means there are two subjects, so the verb is normally plural:

• летали = they were flying

Even though each noun is singular by itself, the combination X and Y is plural in meaning.

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

This sentence begins with the setting:

• На даче = at the dacha
• над цветами = over the flowers

Then it gives the action:

• летали = were flying

Then it names who was doing it:

• бабочка и пчела = a butterfly and a bee

This kind of word order is very natural in Russian. It often sounds like setting first, then action, then participants.

A more neutral English-like order would be:

• Бабочка и пчела летали над цветами на даче.

But the original sentence sounds perfectly normal and paints the scene nicely.

Yes. Both бабочка and пчела are in the nominative case because they are the subject of the sentence.

Russian case depends on grammatical function, not on word position. So even after the verb, they are still the subject.

• бабочка = nominative singular
• пчела = nominative singular

Russian has no articles.

So бабочка can mean:

• a butterfly
• the butterfly

and пчела can mean:

• a bee
• the bee

You figure out which one is meant from context. In this sentence, English would usually say a butterfly and a bee, because they are being introduced as part of the scene.

Sometimes yes, but were flying is usually better here.

Because летать is imperfective, it often describes:

• ongoing action
• repeated motion
• activity in progress
• a general scene

So were flying over the flowers matches the Russian very well.

If you said flew, it might sound more like a simple completed event in English, which is not the main feeling of the Russian sentence.

This is a very common question.

• лететь usually means to be flying / to go by flying in one direction, often a specific trip or movement
• летать usually means to fly around / to fly habitually / to be engaged in flying

So here летали is used because the butterfly and the bee are not presented as going somewhere specific. They are just moving around in the air over the flowers.

That makes летать the natural choice.

It can mean either, depending on context.

In this sentence, над цветами means they were flying in the air above the flowers, so over the flowers is the most natural translation.

• над = above / over

With insects, over the flowers sounds especially natural in English because it suggests motion around that area.

Yes. Russian allows several word orders here, for example:

• Бабочка и пчела летали над цветами на даче.
• Над цветами на даче летали бабочка и пчела.
• На даче бабочка и пчела летали над цветами.

The basic meaning stays the same, but the focus changes a little.

The original version:

• На даче над цветами летали бабочка и пчела.

puts the location first and feels descriptive, like a scene in a story.