Через час приехала девушка и осторожно посмотрела на крыло.

An hour later, a woman arrived and carefully looked at the wing.

Breakdown of Через час приехала девушка и осторожно посмотрела на крыло.

• на: at
• и: and
• через: in
• час: the hour

Questions & Answers about Через час приехала девушка и осторожно посмотрела на крыло.

What does через час mean here?

Here через час means an hour later or in an hour from some reference point in the story.

This is a very common Russian pattern:

• через минуту = in a minute
• через день = a day later
• через неделю = in a week

So через + accusative is often used to show that something happens after a certain amount of time has passed.

It does not mean physical movement through an hour here, even though через can also mean through/across in other contexts.

Why is it приехала, not приехал?

Because the subject is девушка, which is grammatically feminine.

In the past tense, Russian verbs agree with the subject in gender and number:

• приехал = he arrived
• приехала = she arrived
• приехало = it arrived
• приехали = they arrived

So:

• девушка приехала
• мужчина приехал

This is one of the most noticeable features of the Russian past tense.

What is the difference between приехала and пришла?