Breakdown of Я взял велосипед в прокат на выходные.
я
I
в
in / to (direction)
велосипед
bicycle
выходные
weekend
взять
to take / to adopt
на
for (a period of time)
прокат
the rental
Questions & Answers about Я взял велосипед в прокат на выходные.
Why do we use на выходные instead of в выходные here?
На выходные expresses intended duration — you rented the bike for the duration of the weekend. If you said в выходные, it would mean you performed the action of renting the bike during the weekend, but it wouldn't tell us how long you get to keep it. To say you get something for a specific amount of time, use на + Accusative case.
Literally, this says "I took a bicycle...". How do we get "rented"?
The noun прокат means "rental" or "hire". The set phrase взять в прокат literally means "to take into rental". This is the standard Russian way to talk about renting equipment (like bikes, cars, or skis). Note that for renting an apartment, you would use a different verb: снять.
What case is выходные in, and why does it end in -ые?
It is in the Accusative plural. The word выходные (weekend) is actually an adjective acting as a plural noun. Because it represents an inanimate concept, its Accusative plural form is identical to its Nominative plural form, which ends in -ые.
If the rental lasts for the whole weekend, why use the perfective verb взял? Don't we use imperfective verbs for long actions?
The action of taking (взял) the bike was a quick, one-time, completed event. The time phrase на выходные describes how long the result lasts (how long you will have the bike), not how long the action of renting it took. This is a special feature of the на + Accusative structure: it frequently pairs with perfective verbs to show the intended timeframe of the result.
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