Breakdown of Когда солнце взойдёт, мы пойдём на тот крутой холм.
мы
we
на
on, at / by (transport) / to (a place) / to (in answer to)
когда
when
пойти
to go (perfective, on foot) / to start (of rain, snow)
Questions & Answers about Когда солнце взойдёт, мы пойдём на тот крутой холм.
Why is there an extra о in взойдёт?
The prefix for upward motion here is вз-. When attached to the verb for going on foot, the root changes to -йд- in the future tense. To prevent the awkward consonant cluster взйд-, Russian inserts the fill vowel о, creating взойдёт.
Why use a verb for walking on foot (взойти) to talk about the sun?
In Russian, celestial bodies like the sun, moon, and stars traditionally walk across the sky. Therefore, adding the upward prefix вз- to the basic walking verb creates взойти, which is the standard perfective verb for a sunrise.
English uses the present tense for When the sun rises. Why does Russian use the future perfective взойдёт?
English often uses the present tense in time clauses about the future. Russian is strictly logical here: the sun's rising will happen in the future, and the action must be completely finished before we go to the hill. Therefore, it requires the future perfective tense.
Why is the destination на тот крутой холм instead of using the preposition в?
We use на meaning onto because a hill is an open outdoor surface, not an enclosed space like a building. Because this is the destination of our motion, the phrase is in the accusative case. Since холм is a masculine inanimate noun, the entire phrase looks exactly like its nominative dictionary form.