Breakdown of Они поехали на восток, потому что там много золота.
там
there
они
they
много
a lot
потому что
because
на
on, at / by (transport) / to (a place) / to (in answer to)
восток
east
поехать
to go (by transport)
золото
gold
Questions & Answers about Они поехали на восток, потому что там много золота.
Why use the prefix по- in поехали instead of just saying ехали?
Adding the prefix по- to a verb of motion changes its meaning to setting off or starting a journey. It makes the verb perfective (a completed action). Here, поехали emphasizes the moment they set off or departed for the east.
Does поехали tell us how they traveled?
Yes! поехали comes from the base verb ехать, which means to go by transport (such as a car, train, or horse). If they had walked, the sentence would use пошли (from идти).
Why does the phrase for 'to the east' use на восток instead of в восток?
In Russian, the four compass directions (north, south, east, west) always use the preposition на. Because this sentence shows direction or movement towards a destination, восток is in the accusative case (which looks exactly like the dictionary form here because it is an inanimate masculine noun).
Why is the word for gold spelled золота instead of its dictionary form золото?
Words that express quantity, like много (a lot / much) or мало (a little / few), require the noun that follows them to be in the genitive case. золото is a neuter noun, so its ending changes from -о to -а in the genitive case.
Learn Они поехали на восток, потому что там много золота and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free