Breakdown of Каждый месяц они ненадолго заезжают к нам.
мы
we
они
they
месяц
month
каждый
every
к
towards, to
заезжать
to drop in / stop by (impf, by vehicle)
ненадолго
for a short time
Questions & Answers about Каждый месяц они ненадолго заезжают к нам.
Why does this sentence use заезжают instead of заходят?
Both verbs mean to drop in, but they specify how the people are traveling. You use заходят when someone drops in on foot. Because this sentence uses заезжают (built from the vehicle-motion verb ездить), we know they are dropping in by transport, like driving a car or taking a train.
Why do we use к нам instead of в or на?
The choice depends on what you are dropping in on. When you drop in to visit a person or people, you use the preposition к followed by the Dative case, which is нам here. If you were dropping into a place, like a store or a cafe, you would use в or на with the Accusative case instead.
Since a visit is a completed event, why is the imperfective verb заезжают used instead of the perfective заедут?
The key is the phrase Каждый месяц (every month). Even though each individual visit gets completed, the event is a regular, repeated action. In Russian, repeated or habitual actions always require the imperfective aspect.
How is the word ненадолго formed?
It is a very common adverb built from three parts put together. It combines не (not) plus на (for) plus долго (a long time). So literally, it means for not a long time.
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