Breakdown of Почему ты не завтракаешь в среду?
не
not
ты
you (singular)
завтракать
to have breakfast
почему
why
Questions & Answers about Почему ты не завтракаешь в среду?
English says "on Wednesday". Why does the Russian sentence use в instead of на?
When talking about days of the week, Russian always uses the preposition в (which usually means "in") to mean "on". Translating "on" literally as на when talking about days is a very common beginner mistake!
Why does the word for Wednesday end in "у" (среду) instead of "а" (среда)?
The preposition в for days of the week requires the Accusative case. Because среда is a feminine noun ending in -а, its ending changes to -у in the Accusative case.
Where is the word for "have" in "have breakfast"?
In English, "have breakfast" is an action made of two words. In Russian, it is a single verb: завтракать. In this sentence, it is conjugated to match ты (you) as завтракаешь.
Why is не placed right before the verb?
To make an action negative in Russian, you simply place the word не (not) immediately before the verb. Unlike English, you don't need extra helper words like "do" or "don't".