Questions & Answers about Девочка подбежала к щенку.
Why use подбежала instead of just бежала?
The prefix под- adds the meaning of approaching or coming right up to something. While бежала just means she was running, подбежала specifies that she ran up to a target.
Why do we need the preposition к here?
Verbs of motion with the под- prefix almost always pair with the preposition к (meaning towards or to) to link the verb to its destination. The preposition к forces the following noun into the Dative case.
The dictionary form for puppy is щенок. Why did the о disappear in щенку?
Щенок has a fleeting vowel. When you add case endings, such as the Dative -у required by the preposition к, the last о in the root drops out. So, щенок becomes щенку, not щеноку.
Is подбежала a perfective or imperfective verb?
It is perfective. It describes a completed, one-time result: she successfully reached the puppy. If she were in the process of running up to it, you would use the imperfective form подбегала.
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