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- "Вчора ми їздили у село."
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And I thought 'ми їздили'/'ми їхали' was 'we drove' ('to drive' by car, by bus, by bike) ....
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Being English most of my compatriots would say 'yesterday we went into the village' however it has been marked incorrect. Why?
(I guess in my mind the distinction is a bit arbitrary, also languages like English. My bad.)
But, while we are at it, since when is 'town' 'Центр'?
Sometimes people say, "we're going into town," as in leaving the suburbs and going downtown or into the center of the city/town. In this sense, центр is what "downtown" is called in Ukrainian.
Well, but in that sense it just means "center". Without context, most people would interpret "the city center", but there's nothing special about Центр, is there?
Центр is a colloquialism for центр міста, so a UA-EN dictionary probably wouldn't translate центр directly to "town" or "downtown." I could be wrong, I admit.
If you say in Ukrainian,
Вчора ми їздили у центр,
it means, "Yesterday, we went downtown [or 'into town']."
I understand what you are saying. If I understand correctly, it happens in other languages as well.
Let me ask it this way: would a Ukr - Eng dictionary show the translation "Центр" = "City center"?
'Ми їздили' 'Ми ходили' is also 'we went' is it not? Why the different verbs ?
їздити is concrete, specifying a particular trip, a particular time, usually round trip. Їхати is abstract, going somewhere in general or habitually, continuously, not specifying a specific trip there and back.
