Word
Врач гонит машину в больницу.
Meaning
The doctor is driving the car fast to the hospital.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Врач гонит машину в больницу.
Why use гонит here instead of a standard driving verb like ведёт?
The literal meaning of гнать is 'to chase' or 'to herd'. However, when used with vehicles like машину, it takes on the idiomatic meaning of 'to drive fast' or 'to speed'. Using ведёт would just mean driving at a normal, unhurried pace.
The lesson compares гнать and гонять. Why is the unidirectional гонит the right choice here?
The doctor is making a single, focused trip to a specific destination (the hospital). You use the unidirectional verb гнать for one-way, ongoing motion. If the doctor were speeding around town aimlessly or making this trip habitually, you would use the multidirectional гонять.
The infinitive is гнать, so why does it conjugate with an -ит ending instead of -ет?
Гнать is a famous exception to Russian conjugation rules. Even though it ends in -ать, it belongs to the second conjugation class. That is why the stem changes and takes second conjugation endings: гоню, гонишь, and in this sentence, гонит.
Just to review, why is the hospital in the Accusative case (в больницу) rather than Prepositional?