Breakdown of Через час дельфин будет плыть на юг.
на
on, at / by (transport) / to (a place) / to (in answer to)
час
hour
быть
to be
юг
south
через
in (after a period of time)
плыть
to swim, to sail (one direction)
дельфин
the dolphin
Questions & Answers about Через час дельфин будет плыть на юг.
Why do we use плыть instead of плавать here?
Плыть is the unidirectional verb of motion for swimming. We use it here because the dolphin is heading in one specific direction (на юг) at a specific continuous moment in time (in an hour). If it were swimming around aimlessly, we would use the multidirectional verb плавать.
Why is the future tense formed with будет плыть rather than a single verb?
Because this is an ongoing action in the future ("will be swimming"), we need the imperfective future tense. In Russian, the imperfective future is always a compound tense: a conjugated form of быть (here, будет) plus the imperfective infinitive (плыть). A perfective verb (like поплыть) would form a single-word future, but that would mean "will set off swimming".
Doesn't через usually mean "through" or "across"? Why does it mean "in" here?
You are right that for physical space, через means "through" or "across" (like walking across a park). However, when talking about time, через followed by the accusative case (like час) translates to "in" or "after" a certain amount of time. So, через час means "in an hour".
Why do we say на юг for "south" instead of using в?
In Russian, compass directions (north, south, east, west) always pair with the preposition на. Because this sentence shows motion towards a destination, юг is in the accusative case, which looks exactly like the nominative here because it is a masculine inanimate noun.
Learn Через час дельфин будет плыть на юг and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free