Breakdown of Опытный пилот летит в столицу.
в
in / to (direction)
столица
capital city
лететь
to fly (one direction)
опытный
experienced
пилот
the pilot
Questions & Answers about Опытный пилот летит в столицу.
Why do we use летит here instead of летает?
летит is the unidirectional verb for flying (from the infinitive лететь). It is used here because the pilot is currently making a single, one-way trip to a specific destination (the capital). If the sentence meant he flies there regularly as a habit, we would use the multidirectional verb летает.
Why does the sentence use в столицу instead of в столице?
When talking about motion towards a destination, Russian uses the preposition в (or на) with the Accusative case. The dictionary form is столица (feminine), which becomes столицу in the Accusative. If you used the Prepositional case (в столице), it would mean the pilot is just flying around inside the capital, not traveling to it.
The infinitive is лететь, so why does the 'he/she' form end in -ит instead of -ет?
Despite ending in -еть, лететь is conjugated as a Type 2 (И-conjugation) verb. It is an exception you have to memorize. The stem also changes slightly in the 'I' form: я лечу, ты летишь, он/она летит.
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