Word
Однажды утром он не пришёл на работу.
Meaning
One morning he did not come to work.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Однажды утром он не пришёл на работу.
не
not
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
работа
work, job
утром
in the morning
Questions & Answers about Однажды утром он не пришёл на работу.
Since this lesson focuses on habitual verbs like бывать, why don't we see a habitual form here?
The word однажды (once or one day) pins the sentence down to a single, specific event. Therefore, we use the perfective verb пришёл to focus on the result on that exact day. Habitual structures are used for recurring events, whereas this is a one-time incident.
Why is the word for morning (утро) in the instrumental case (утром)?
Russian uses the instrumental case for times of the day to express when an action happens. While утро is the noun for morning, утром acts as an adverb meaning in the morning.
Why do we use the preposition на for going to work, instead of в?
The noun работа (work) is a common exception in Russian that requires the preposition на instead of в for locations. Because he is moving towards a destination, we use the accusative case, making it на работу.
Could we use пошёл instead of пришёл here?
They have slightly different meanings due to their prefixes. Пришёл focuses on arrival, so не пришёл means he did not show up at the workplace. Пошёл focuses on departure, so не пошёл would mean he did not even set off or leave his house for work.