Word
Я гоню прочь эти дурные мысли.
Meaning
I am driving away these bad thoughts.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Я гоню прочь эти дурные мысли.
я
I
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
мысль
thought
гнать
to drive (animals, or fast)
Questions & Answers about Я гоню прочь эти дурные мысли.
Why use the unidirectional гнать (гоню) instead of the multidirectional гонять for an abstract concept like thoughts?
Even though driving away thoughts is metaphorical, the action is conceived as moving them in a single, specific direction: away from yourself. Because of this singular trajectory, Russian uses the unidirectional гнать. The combination гнать прочь is a common set phrase for driving something away.
Гоню looks very different from its infinitive. How does this verb conjugate?
Гоню comes from гнать. It has an unexpected conjugation where the vowel -о- appears in the stem and it takes second-conjugation endings: я гоню, ты гонишь, он гонит, они гонят. The multidirectional counterpart гонять, on the other hand, is completely regular (я гоняю, ты гоняешь).
What exactly is прочь and how does it differ from just using a prefix on the verb?
Прочь is an adverb meaning away or off. While you could use a prefixed verb like отгонять (to drive away) to get a similar meaning, pairing прочь with the unprefixed verb гнать adds a strong emotional emphasis. It feels much more forceful, like casting the thoughts away.
Why use дурные instead of the more common плохие for bad?