Russian divides verbs of motion into two categories. You already know the "unidirectional" verbs (идти and ехать), which describe a one-way trip happening right now.
To describe habitual, repeated, or round-trip journeys, Russian uses "multidirectional" verbs. You will often see these paired with words expressing frequency, such as каждый (every), редко (rarely), иногда (sometimes), or обычно (usually).
The multidirectional counterpart to идти is ходить. Use it for routine trips you make on foot, or general movement back and forth.
| Pronoun | ходить |
|---|
| я | хожу |
| ты | ходишь |
| он / она | ходит |
| мы | ходим |
| вы | ходите |
| они | ходят |
Going by vehicle: ездить
The multidirectional counterpart to ехать is ездить. Use this for habitual trips using a car, train, bus, or any other vehicle. Notice that both ходить and ездить have a consonant change in their я forms.
| Pronoun | ездить |
|---|
| я | езжу |
| ты | ездишь |
| он / она | ездит |
| мы | ездим |
| вы | ездите |
| они | ездят |
Destination and Round Trips
When describing motion towards a destination, Russian uses the word туда (there, to there). When coming back or backwards, use обратно.
The phrase туда и обратно means "there and back" (a round trip). Because round trips imply movement in multiple directions, they always require multidirectional verbs.
Let's look at how one-way (happening right now) and multidirectional (habitual or round-trip) verbs contrast in action:
