Breakdown of Мой брат должен пойти к стоматологу через неделю.
брат
brother
мой
my (мой, моя, моё) / mine
неделя
week
пойти
to go (perfective, on foot) / to start (of rain, snow)
должен
must, have to (должен, должна, должны)
к
towards, to
стоматолог
dentist
через
in (after a period of time)
Questions & Answers about Мой брат должен пойти к стоматологу через неделю.
Why do we use через неделю to say in a week?
To say that an event will happen in or after a certain amount of time, Russian uses the preposition через followed by the Accusative case. Because неделя (a week) is a feminine noun ending in -я, its ending changes to -ю in the Accusative case, becoming неделю.
Why does the sentence use к стоматологу instead of в стоматолог?
When you are going to a person or a professional (like a dentist, doctor, or friend), you must use the preposition к followed by the Dative case. The prepositions в and на are only used for going to physical places or events, not people.
Why is пойти used here instead of идти?
Пойти is the perfective form of the verb to go. We use it here because the brother is going to make a specific, one-time, completed trip to the dentist in the future, rather than an ongoing or repeated action.
How does the word должен work here?
Russian doesn't have a standard verb for must. Instead, it uses the short adjective должен (obliged). Because it acts like an adjective, it has to match the gender and number of the subject. Since брат (brother) is masculine singular, we use the masculine form должен. If the subject were a sister, it would be должна.
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