Thread: New learner, simple question

Hello folks!

Native english speaker here, also speak fluent spanish. Extremely new to the Russian language. Im working on the noun cases right now. Have a decent grasp on changing the endings for the 6 cases in the singular and plural forms. However, this really basic concept is confusing me.

If I were to say я работаю завтра, why does завтра not change form? Thanks

Hello, and welcome to the forum.
I'm always delighted to see another learner of Russian!

In the majority (arguable all) of scenarios, завтра is an adverb, that simply describes the verb, in this case работать. Adverbs don't ever decline, because they are affecting a verb which has no gender or case, and at most they can be just adjectives declined to a shortened neuter singular. For instance
скорый --- скоро

Some [wiktionary https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%B...82%D1%80%D0%B0 ] will argue that завтра can sometimes be an undeclinable noun, in which case it won't take any forms.

I believe you could reasonably argue for it always being an adverb though.

The story is the same for similar words about time of day, сегодня, вчера, послезавтра, позавчера.

Originally Posted by xXHoax

Hello, and welcome to the forum.
I'm always delighted to see another learner of Russian!

In the majority (arguable all) of scenarios, завтра is an adverb, that simply describes the verb, in this case работать. Adverbs don't ever decline, because they are affecting a verb which has no gender or case, and at most they can be just adjectives declined to a shortened neuter singular. For instance
скорый --- скоро

Some [wiktionary https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%B...82%D1%80%D0%B0 ] will argue that завтра can sometimes be an undeclinable noun, in which case it won't take any forms.

I believe you could reasonably argue for it always being an adverb though.

The story is the same for similar words about time of day, сегодня, вчера, послезавтра, позавчера.

Thank you so much!