To go in Russian - Идти and ехать
In Russian, there are different words for “to go” depending on whether one travels by foot or by transport. Today we’ll learn these words and practice their use on examples with audio.
Идти – to go by foot
Идти is an imperfective verb. To start with, let’s look at the conjugation of the verb идти:
| Present (Настоящее время) | Past (Прошедшее время) | Future (Будущее время) |
|---|---|---|
| я иду́ ты идёшь он(а́) идёт мы идём вы идёте они́ иду́т | я шёл / шла ты шёл / шла он шёл / она́ шла мы шли вы шли они шли | я бу́ду идти́ ты бу́дешь идти́ он(а́) бу́дет идти́ мы бу́дем идти́ вы бу́дете идти́ они́ бу́дут идти́ |
Now have a look at these examples:
Я иду́ домо́й.
I’m going home.
За́втра мы идём на пляж.
Tomorrow we are going to the beach.
Куда́ вы идёте?
Where are you going?
Мы шли на ры́нок.
We were going to the market.
Ехать – to go by transport
Ехать is an imperfective verb as well. Again, let’s start with the conjugation of the verb ехать:
| Present (Настоящее время) | Past (Прошедшее время) | Future (Будущее время) |
|---|---|---|
| я е́ду ты е́дешь он(а́) е́дет мы е́дем вы е́дете они́ е́дут | я е́хал / е́хала ты е́хал / е́хала он е́хал / она́ е́хала мы е́хали вы е́хали они́ е́хали | я бу́ду е́хать ты бу́дешь е́хать он(а́) бу́дет е́хать мы бу́дем е́хать вы бу́дете е́хать они́ бу́дут е́хать |
Now have a look at the following examples:
Я е́ду домо́й.
I’m going home (by transport).
За́втра они́ е́дут в Москву́.
Tomorrow they are going to Moscow (by train/car).
Куда́ мы е́дем?
Where are we going (by transport)?
Он е́хал на рабо́ту на авто́бусе.
He was going to work by bus.
Ты е́дешь сли́шком бы́стро.
You are going (driving) to fast.
A word on the verbs of motion
The verbs идти and ехать, along with a few others, consist a specific group of Russian verbs – verbs of motion. Verbs of motion are divided into two groups – unidirectional and multidirectional.
The verbs идти and ехать are unidirectional. It means that they should be used when you talk about movements that happen once or in one direction.
The multidirectional equivalents of идти and ехать are ходить and ездить (respectively). They should be used when you talk about movements that happen regularly of in many directions.
Compare:
Она́ идёт на рабо́ту.
She is going to work.
Она́ хо́дит на рабо́ту пешко́м.
She (always/usually) goes to work by foot.
Мы е́дем на да́чу.
We are going to dacha (on our way to dacha).
Мы е́здим на да́чу ка́ждые выходны́е.
We go to dacha every weekend.
The verbs of motion are covered in the following lesson: Russian verbs of motion.
The offline version of this lesson is available here
Hello,
Thanks for your great lessons.
Are there suffixes, prefixes, root lessons in Russian? For example, I see -хать in some words.
Thanks!
Hi Ngô Vĩnh Trường,
Thanks for your question.
To some extend, there are such lessons, but not exactly what you are talking about.
You can find lessons on prefixes (we have one here: https://learnrussianstepbystep.com/en/prefixes-in-russian/) and endings: for nouns and adjective changing in cases and for verbs conjugated (many of them in our site).
There are also lessons on suffixes (we have one here – https://learnrussianstepbystep.com/en/diminutive-hypocoristic-suffixes-in-russian/, but there are many other suffixes).
There are no lessons about roots/stems, as every word has its own and it would be impossible to summarize them. But once you know how to recognize endings and prefixes, the rest is much easier.
As for -хать, -ать is an ending of a verb infinitive, -x- is a part of a stem.
What about multi-tasking; using “when/while” in a sentence with a verb of motion?
Hello Siera,
We did not cover сompound sentences yet, but if you clarify your question, I can answer you here.
Very nicely explained 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Hello Deepika,
Thanks for the comment. Good luck! 🙂
Why past from of я and ты have two froms?
Hello Alan,
One is masculine and the second one is feminine. We corrected the lesson for clarity.