На площади голубь ходит между людьми и ищет хлеб.

Because this sentence answers where?, not to where?

• на площади = in/on the square → location
• на площадь = onto/to the square → direction

After на, Russian uses different cases depending on the meaning:

• Prepositional case for location: на площади
• Accusative case for movement toward a place: на площадь

So here, the pigeon is already there, walking around in the square, so на площади is correct.

Because площадь is in the prepositional case after на when it means location.

The dictionary form is:

• площадь = square, plaza

In the prepositional singular, it becomes:

• на площади

This is a common pattern for many feminine nouns ending in -ь:

• дверь → о двери
• тетрадь → в тетради
• площадь → на площади

Голубь is the subject of the sentence, so it stays in the nominative case.

• голубь = pigeon

The subject is the thing doing the action:

• голубь ходит = the pigeon walks / is walking

You would use other cases only if голубь had a different role in the sentence, for example:

• Я вижу голубя. = I see a pigeon.
  Here голубя is the object, so it is accusative.

This is a very common question, because Russian has two different verbs that often both get translated as go/walk.

• идти / идёт = going in one direction, right now
• ходить / ходит = going around, repeated movement, movement without a single clear direction

In this sentence, the pigeon is moving around among people in the square, not heading in one straight direction. So ходит fits better.

Compare:

• Голубь идёт к фонтану. = The pigeon is going toward the fountain.
• Голубь ходит между людьми. = The pigeon is walking around among people.

After между in this meaning, Russian normally uses the instrumental case.

• между = between / among
• люди = people
• людьми = instrumental plural of люди

So:

• между людьми = among people / between people

This is something you largely have to memorize: many prepositions regularly require a certain case.

Because люди is already an irregular plural form.

The word человек means person, but its plural is not regular:

• singular: человек
• plural: люди

Then the case forms of люди are:

• nominative: люди
• genitive: людей
• dative: людям
• instrumental: людьми
• prepositional: людях

So между людьми is just the correct instrumental plural form of this irregular noun.

Here хлеб is the direct object, so it is in the accusative case. For an inanimate masculine noun, the accusative singular usually looks the same as the nominative singular.

• nominative: хлеб
• accusative: хлеб

So:

• ищет хлеб = is looking for bread

Why not хлеба?

• хлеба can be a different case/form depending on context.
• In some situations, Russian can use genitive after certain verbs for an indefinite amount or in special meanings, but here the most straightforward and natural form is ищет хлеб.

Also, since bread is a mass noun here, Russian often just uses the basic singular form.

Ищет comes from искать, which is imperfective.

• искать = to look for, to be searching for
• найти = to find
• поискать = to search for a while

The sentence describes an ongoing action:

• the pigeon is walking around
• and it is looking for bread

That makes the imperfective natural, because it focuses on the process, not the result.

So ищет хлеб means it is engaged in the act of searching, not that it has found anything.

Russian does not have articles like English a/an and the.

So голубь can mean:

• a pigeon
• the pigeon

Which one sounds best depends on context.

The same is true for хлеб:

• bread
• the bread
• sometimes some bread, depending on context

Russian relies on context, word order, and situation instead of articles.

Yes, Russian word order is much more flexible than English word order because case endings show each word’s role.

The neutral version here is:

• На площади голубь ходит между людьми и ищет хлеб.

But other orders are also possible, with slightly different emphasis:

• Голубь ходит между людьми на площади и ищет хлеб.
• Между людьми голубь ходит на площади и ищет хлеб.

The original sentence sounds natural and sets the scene first with На площади.

So the order is not random, but it is more flexible than in English.

In this sentence, it most naturally means among people.

Literally, между often means between, but in real usage it can also describe movement in a group or space surrounded by others, which in English is often better translated as among.

So:

• ходит между людьми = walks among people

If you translate it as between people, that is not wrong, but among people sounds more natural in English here.

A stress-marked version is:

На площа́ди го́лубь хо́дит между́ людьми́ и и́щет хлеб.

A rough pronunciation guide:

• На = nah
• площа́ди = ploh-SHCHA-dee
• го́лубь = GO-luyp' / GO-lu-bʹ
• хо́дит = HO-dit
• между́ = mezh-DOO
• людьми́ = lyud-MEE
• и = ee
• и́щет = EE-shchet
• хлеб = khlyep

A few useful notes:

• х sounds like the ch in Scottish loch
• ь is a soft sign; it softens the preceding consonant
• unstressed vowels are often reduced in actual speech

Sometimes yes, but walks is better here.

Russian ходить can mean to go on foot, to walk, or to move around on foot depending on context. Since the subject is a pigeon moving around in a square, walks around or is walking around sounds most natural.

So in this sentence:

• best: walks around
• also possible in some contexts: goes around

But plain goes is usually less precise in English here.