Breakdown of Он прилетает завтра вечером.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
вечером
in the evening
завтра
tomorrow
прилетать
to arrive (by air)
Questions & Answers about Он прилетает завтра вечером.
Why does this sentence use the prefix при- instead of the от- prefix we are learning in this lesson?
While от- indicates moving away or departing from a point, the prefix при- indicates arriving or reaching a destination. Here, прилетает means arrives by flight (literally flies in).
Which base verb of motion is прилетает formed from?
It is built from летать (the multi-directional verb for flying). A core rule for verbs of motion is that adding a prefix to a multi-directional verb creates an imperfective verb. Therefore, прилетать is imperfective. Its perfective counterpart is прилететь, built from the uni-directional лететь.
Why is the present tense прилетает used if the arrival is завтра (tomorrow)?
Just like in English (He arrives tomorrow), Russian often uses the present tense of imperfective verbs to state scheduled or fixed future events, such as flight itineraries or train schedules.
Why does the word for evening (вечер) end in -ом here?
To express time of day like in the morning, during the day, in the evening, or at night, Russian uses the instrumental case. Therefore, the nominative вечер becomes the instrumental вечером to answer the question when.
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