Breakdown of Мы едем на вокзал, а они домой.
а
and (contrastive)
мы
we
они
they
на
on, at / by (transport) / to (a place) / to (in answer to)
ехать
to go (by vehicle)
домой
home
вокзал
train station
Questions & Answers about Мы едем на вокзал, а они домой.
Why is it на вокзал instead of в вокзал?
The preposition на usually means on, but it is also used for certain destinations like events and transport hubs. For a train station (вокзал), Russian always uses на to say you are going there.
Why doesn't вокзал change its ending for the Accusative case?
Because it is a non-living thing. In Russian, masculine nouns for inanimate objects look exactly the same in the Accusative case (destination) as they do in the dictionary form.
Why use домой instead of в дом for going home?
домой is a special directional word that means homewards. It perfectly answers the destination question куда (where to). Saying в дом would sound like you are specifying moving inside a physical house building, rather than just going home.
Why does the sentence use а for and instead of и?
The word а is used to show a contrast or a shift in focus. We use it here because we are comparing two different subjects going to two different places: we are going to the station, whereas they are going home.
Is a verb missing in the second part (а они домой)?
Yes, Russian often drops the verb in the second half of a sentence to avoid repeating it. You could say а они едут домой (and they are driving home), but leaving the verb out is very natural and common.
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