Утром папа открыл ворота и поехал на машине.

by

Breakdown of Утром папа открыл ворота и поехал на машине.

• машина: the car
• открыть: to open
• и: and

Questions & Answers about Утром папа открыл ворота и поехал на машине.

Why is утром used without a preposition?

Утром means in the morning. Russian often uses the instrumental form of parts of the day as adverbs, without a word like in.

Compare:

• утром = in the morning
• днём = during the day
• вечером = in the evening
• ночью = at night

So Утром папа... is a very natural way to begin the sentence.

Why does папа end in -а if it means a male person?

Some Russian nouns referring to males end in -а or -я, even though they are grammatically masculine. Папа is one of them.

That is why the verbs are masculine:

• папа открыл
• папа поехал

Not feminine:

• папа открыла ❌
• папа поехала ❌

So the ending of the noun does not always tell you the gender.

How do I know открыл and поехал are past tense?