Breakdown of Мы заехали в супермаркет и в пекарню.
и
and
мы
we
в
in / to (direction)
пекарня
bakery
супермаркет
supermarket
заехать
to drop in / stop by (pf, by vehicle)
Questions & Answers about Мы заехали в супермаркет и в пекарню.
Why does this sentence use заехали instead of зашли or поехали?
The prefix за- on a verb of motion means "to drop in," "stop by," or "make a short detour." Because the base verb here is about motion by vehicle (ехать), заехали specifically means "we dropped in while driving." If you were walking, you would use зашли. If you used поехали, it would simply mean "we went," losing the specific meaning of making a quick, casual stop on the way to somewhere else.
The lesson mentions using к for "dropping in". Why did we use в here?
The preposition depends on what you are dropping in to. Because a supermarket and a bakery are physical places or buildings, we use в (or на) + Accusative case. You only use к + Dative case when you are dropping in on a person (for example, Мы заехали к другу - We dropped in to see a friend).
Why is it в пекарню with a -ю at the end, but супермаркет doesn't change?
Because we are expressing direction or destination ("into"), we must use the Accusative case after в. Супермаркет is a masculine inanimate noun, so its Accusative form is identical to the dictionary form. Пекарня (bakery) is a feminine noun ending in -я, which changes to -ю in the Accusative case.
Do I really need to repeat the preposition в before пекарню? Can I just say в супермаркет и пекарню?
Yes, you should repeat it. In Russian, it is grammatically standard and strongly preferred to repeat the preposition before every noun in a list, especially when describing location or direction. Skipping the second в sounds unnatural to native speakers.
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