Breakdown of Дети идут в парк.
парк
park
ребёнок
child
в
in / to (direction)
идти
to go (on foot) / to proceed, go (of a process)
Questions & Answers about Дети идут в парк.
Wait, is дети a normal plural? What is the singular word for "child"?
Дети is a highly irregular plural. The singular word for "a child" is ребёнок. Instead of just changing the ending of the singular word, Russian uses a completely different root for the plural form, so it is one you just have to memorize!
Why does the verb end in -ут (идут)?
Идут is the "they" form of the verb идти (to go). Because дети (children) is a plural noun, it acts like "they" (они), so the verb must match it.
Why use идут instead of ходят if they both mean "to go"?
Идут is used because the children are on their way to the park right now, moving in one specific direction. If the sentence meant they go to the park regularly as a habit, you would use the multidirectional verb ходят.
Why doesn't парк change its ending? Doesn't the preposition в usually change the noun?
When в means location ("in the park"), it takes the Prepositional case and changes the ending to в парке. But here, it shows destination ("to the park"), which requires the Accusative case. For masculine, non-living things like парк, the Accusative form looks exactly the same as the basic dictionary form.
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