Breakdown of Утром я отвёз детей в школу.
я
I
ребёнок
child
школа
school
утром
in the morning
отвезти
to take, to drive (somebody somewhere, perfective)
Questions & Answers about Утром я отвёз детей в школу.
The lesson is about везти (to transport). Why does the sentence use отвёз?
Отвёз is the past tense (masculine) of отвезти. By adding the prefix от- (away/off) to the unidirectional verb везти, we get a perfective verb meaning "to take/drive someone to a specific destination". The speaker drove them off to school.
Why doesn't отвёз end in -л like most past tense verbs?
Verbs ending in -ти (like везти or отвезти) often have irregular past tense forms for the masculine singular, dropping the -л. If the speaker were female, it would be the regular-looking отвезла.
Could I use a form of the multidirectional verb возить here instead?
You would use a form based on возить (like the habit-focused отвозил) if you were talking about a repeated action, such as "Every morning I drove the children to school." Because this sentence describes one completed, one-way trip on a specific morning, we use a form built from the unidirectional везти.
Why is the word for children детей instead of дети?
Детей is the accusative plural of дети. Because "children" are people (which Russian grammar calls "animate"), their accusative plural form looks identical to the genitive plural. They are the direct object being transported here.
Why does the sentence start with утром instead of just утро?
To say "in the morning", "in the afternoon", etc., Russian uses the instrumental case. So the dictionary word утро (morning) becomes утром (in the morning).
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