Breakdown of Солдаты вернулись домой после войны.
домой
home
после
after
вернуться
to return (pf)
война
war
солдат
soldier
Questions & Answers about Солдаты вернулись домой после войны.
Why does the sentence use домой instead of дома for "home"?
In Russian, you have to choose the right word based on motion. Дома means being at home (location), while домой means going to home (direction). Since the soldiers are returning (motion), we use домой.
Why is the perfective verb вернулись used here instead of the imperfective возвращались?
The perfective aspect вернулись is used because it focuses on the completed result of the action: the soldiers made it back home and the trip is finished. The imperfective возвращались would mean they were in the process of returning or returned repeatedly.
Why does вернулись end in -сь instead of the usual -ся for reflexive verbs?
Reflexive verbs use -сь instead of -ся whenever the letter right before it is a vowel. Because the past plural ending is -и (a vowel), вернулись gets -сь. If it were masculine singular, it would be вернулся because the past tense ending is a consonant (-л).
What case is войны in, and why?
It is in the genitive case. The preposition после (after) always requires the genitive case for the noun that follows it. The nominative война (war) changes its -а to -ы to form the genitive войны.
Learn Солдаты вернулись домой после войны and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free