Breakdown of Гости пришли за день до праздника.
день
day
гость
guest
праздник
holiday
до
before, until
прийти
to arrive (on foot, pf)
за ... до
before (as in "an hour before the flight")
Questions & Answers about Гости пришли за день до праздника.
Why do we use two prepositions (за and до) to say 'a day before'?
To express exactly how long before an event something happens, Russian uses the specific formula за + [time amount] + до + [event]. If you just used перед праздником, it would only mean 'before the holiday' in a general sense, without letting you attach the exact timeframe of one day.
What case is день in, and why doesn't its ending change?
It is in the accusative case, which is required by the preposition за for the 'amount of time' part of this construction. Because день is a masculine, inanimate noun, its accusative form looks exactly the same as its basic dictionary form.
Why does праздник end in -а here?
It is in the genitive case (праздника). In this time expression, the second preposition, до (until/before), always forces the event that follows it into the genitive case.
Why use the perfective verb пришли instead of the imperfective приходили?
Пришли is a perfective verb of motion that focuses on a single, completed result: the guests successfully arrived (and are presumably staying for the holiday). If you used приходили, it would imply a round trip, meaning they came and have already left.
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