Breakdown of Эта пьеса идёт уже десять лет.
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
идти
to go (on foot) / to proceed, go (of a process)
десять
ten
год
year
Questions & Answers about Эта пьеса идёт уже десять лет.
Why is the present tense verb идёт used when the English translation says "has been running"?
In Russian, if an action started in the past and is still happening right now, you use the present tense. While English uses the present perfect continuous, Russian simply expresses that the play "is going" today.
Does идёт literally mean "is walking" here?
The verb идти usually means "to go" or "to walk" on foot, but it is the standard verb used for movies, TV shows, and plays to mean "to run" or "to be showing".
How does уже change the meaning of the time phrase?
While уже literally means "already", combining it with a time period like десять лет translates best as "for ten years now". It emphasizes the continuous duration leading up to the present.
Why is the word for "years" лет instead of a form of год?
Numbers from 5 onwards require the following noun to be in the genitive plural. The word год (year) has an irregular genitive plural: it borrows from the word for "summer", becoming лет.