Breakdown of Они уже прошли мимо исторического музея.
они
they
музей
museum
уже
already
мимо
past (moving by)
исторический
historical
пройти
to pass (perfective)
Questions & Answers about Они уже прошли мимо исторического музея.
Why do we need the word мимо if the prefix про- in прошли already implies going past something?
It is very common in Russian to pair a prefixed verb of motion with a matching preposition. While прошли alone can mean they went through something or covered a specific distance, adding мимо clarifies the exact path: they walked past the outside of the museum without going inside.
Why is the perfective verb прошли used here instead of the imperfective проходили?
Прошли emphasizes that the action is fully completed and has a result. The word уже (already) strongly highlights this completion: they have finished walking past the museum and are now somewhere further along their route.
If прошли is built from the base verb идти (to go), why does it look so different?
The base verb идти has a highly irregular past tense: шёл, шла, шли. When we add the prefix про- to make пройти, the past tense keeps that same irregular shape, giving us прошли for the plural 'they'.
Why is the ending -ого used in исторического and -я in музея?
The preposition мимо (past/by) always requires the Genitive case. Therefore, the masculine noun музей changes to музея, and its matching adjective исторический changes to исторического.
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