Word
Когда они играют? Во вторник.
Meaning
When are they playing? On Tuesday.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Когда они играют? Во вторник.
Why does it say во вторник instead of just using the normal preposition в?
Russian adds an о to the preposition в when the following word starts with certain consonant combinations, especially those beginning with в or ф. Because вторник starts with the consonants вт, saying в вторник would just sound like a stutter. The extra vowel makes it во вторник, which is much easier to pronounce.
The lesson says we use the Accusative case for days of the week. Why hasn't the word вторник changed its ending?
It actually is in the Accusative case here! To say "on a certain day", Russian uses в (or во) plus the Accusative case. However, вторник is a masculine inanimate noun (it is a thing, not a person or animal). For masculine inanimate nouns, the Accusative form is identical to the Nominative (dictionary) form.
The English translation says "are they playing", but doesn't они играют just mean "they play"?
It means both! Russian does not have a separate "present continuous" tense to distinguish between actions happening right now and actions that happen in general. A single present tense verb like играют covers "they play" and "they are playing". Context tells you which one makes the most sense in English.
Do I need to change the ending of когда if I ask about a different subject?