Breakdown of Пятнадцать туристов подошли к кассе.
турист
tourist
касса
cash desk, till
пятнадцать
fifteen
к
towards, to
подойти
to approach, to come up to
Questions & Answers about Пятнадцать туристов подошли к кассе.
Why do we use подошли here instead of подходили?
подошли is the perfective past tense of подойти. We use the perfective aspect here because the tourists completed a single, specific action: they walked up to the ticket office and reached it. подходили (imperfective) would mean they were in the process of approaching or did it repeatedly.
How is the word подошли formed?
It comes from the verb подойти (to approach on foot). The base verb идти has an irregular past tense (шёл, шла, шли). When we add the prefix под- (meaning approach), an extra -о- is inserted to make it easier to say, giving us подошли for the plural.
Why is the ticket office кассе instead of кассу?
Verbs of motion with the prefix под- almost always pair with the preposition к (to or towards). The preposition к always requires the Dative case, so the feminine noun касса changes its ending to кассе.
Why is the noun туристов in the genitive plural case?
In Russian, numbers 5 and above (like пятнадцать) require the noun that follows them to be in the genitive plural. So, the singular турист becomes туристов.
Since пятнадцать туристов is a quantity, could the verb be singular?
Yes, you could technically say подошло, which is the neuter singular form often used with quantities. However, when the subject is animate (living beings like туристов) and they are actively doing something, Russian speakers strongly prefer the plural verb подошли.
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