Question 1

What does До полудня mean here?

Accepted Answer

До полудня means before noon or by noon in this sentence.

- до = until / up to / before
- полудня = noon in the form required after до

So the phrase sets a time limit: all of this happened before noon.

Depending on context, English might translate it as:
- Before noon, we managed...
- By noon, we had managed...

Both capture the idea reasonably well.

Question 2

Why is it полудня, not полдень?

Accepted Answer

Because the preposition до requires the genitive case.

The dictionary form is полдень (noon), but after до it changes to полудня.

So:

- полдень = nominative
- до полудня = genitive after до

This is a very common pattern in Russian:

- до утра = until morning
- до вечера = until evening
- до дома = as far as the house / up to the house

Question 3

What does успели mean?

Accepted Answer

Успели is the past tense plural form of успеть, which means to manage to, to succeed in, or to have enough time to do something.

So мы успели means:

- we managed to
- we had time to
- we succeeded in

In this sentence, it suggests that before noon, we were able to do both actions in time.

Question 4

Why is it успели, not успевали?

Accepted Answer

Because успеть is perfective, and here the speaker is talking about a completed result.

- успеть = to manage to do something successfully, with a result
- успевать = to be managing / to generally have enough time / to be in time habitually

In this sentence, the speaker is saying that the actions were successfully completed before noon, so успели fits naturally.

Compare:

- Мы успели купить кофе. = We managed to buy coffee.
- Мы всегда успевали купить кофе перед работой. = We always had time to buy coffee before work.

Question 5

Why are пройти and купить both in the infinitive?

Accepted Answer

Because after успеть, Russian normally uses the infinitive:

- успеть сделать
- успеть прийти
- успеть купить

So here:

- успели пройти = managed to walk/go through
- и купить = and buy

One verb, успели, governs both infinitives. In English we do the same thing:

- We managed to walk two blocks and buy coffee.

Russian simply does it without needing to repeat успели.

Question 6

Why is it пройти, not идти or ходить?

Accepted Answer

Пройти is the natural choice because it expresses covering a certain distance and reaching a completed result.

Here, пройти два квартала means to walk/go two blocks, with emphasis on completing that distance.

Why not the others?

- идти = to be going, to go in one direction; focuses more on the process
- ходить = to go/walk habitually or in various directions
- пройти = to pass, to go through, to walk a certain distance completely

Because the sentence is about what was successfully completed before noon, the perfective пройти fits very well.

Question 7

Why is it купить, not покупать?

Accepted Answer

For the same basic reason: купить is perfective, so it presents the action as completed.

- купить = to buy, to make the purchase successfully
- покупать = to be buying / to buy habitually / repeated buying

In this sentence, we are talking about one completed purchase, so купить кофе is the normal choice.

Compare:

- Мы успели купить кофе. = We managed to buy coffee.
- Мы часто покупали кофе там. = We often bought coffee there.

Question 8

Why is it два квартала? Why does квартал become квартала?

Accepted Answer

After the numerals 2, 3, 4, Russian nouns usually take the genitive singular.

So:

- один квартал
- два квартала
- три квартала
- четыре квартала
- пять кварталов

That is why the sentence has два квартала.

This is one of the most important number patterns in Russian.

Question 9

What does квартал mean here?

Accepted Answer

Here квартал means a city block.

So пройти два квартала means to walk two blocks.

Be careful: квартал can also mean quarter in other contexts, for example:

- первый квартал года = the first quarter of the year

But in a sentence about walking a distance, it clearly means block.

Question 10

Why is кофе unchanged? Shouldn’t it be in the accusative?

Accepted Answer

Yes, кофе is the direct object, so it is in the accusative. But кофе is an indeclinable noun, which means its form does not change.

So:

- nominative: кофе
- accusative: кофе
- often the same in other cases too, depending on usage

That is why you do not see any ending change.

Also, кофе is traditionally treated as masculine in standard Russian, though in everyday speech some variation exists.

Question 11

Is there any special reason the sentence starts with До полудня?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Putting До полудня first gives the sentence a clear time frame right away.

Russian word order is flexible, so this is very natural. Starting with the time expression emphasizes when the actions were completed.

Compare:

- До полудня мы успели пройти два квартала и купить кофе.
- Мы успели до полудня пройти два квартала и купить кофе.

Both are possible, but the first sounds especially natural if the speaker wants to foreground the time limit before noon.

Question 12

Could this sentence mean we had enough time before noon, rather than we hurried and managed somehow?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Успели often carries the idea of managing to in time, but the exact nuance depends on context.

It can suggest:
- there was enough time,
- the action was completed before a deadline,
- possibly that it was not entirely easy, though not necessarily dramatic.

So this sentence could simply mean:
- Before noon, we had time to walk two blocks and buy coffee.

Or, in a slightly more effort-focused way:
- Before noon, we managed to walk two blocks and buy coffee.

Both are reasonable unless the wider context makes one interpretation clearer.

До полудня мы успели пройти два квартала и купить кофе.

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