In the phrase: - "Где ты была?" - "Я ходила на почту "
Why ходила is used instead of ездила?
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4because it is assumed that the post office is not that far away and most probalby in a working distance. Please, put some effort in at least formatting you question.– shabunc ♦Dec 20, 2016 at 19:36
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thank you for the help, but how the question is supposed to be formated? i usually do different, but because anothers reclamations i did what i did here.– Yassin RanyDec 20, 2016 at 21:05
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3Within a city, places like restaurants, the post office, the theatre are like events. You go there and spend some time. Ходить in these cases = быть and just says that you went there spend some time then left. And ходить is used because there for the same reason we don't say "I drove to the restaurant, or the theatre, but instead say "I went there". Within cities, unless you really want to emphasize transport, the verb ходить/идти will be used.– VCH250Dec 21, 2016 at 7:51
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1I think if a person really visited a post office using some sort of transport - they will use "Ездила на почту" instead - there is absolutely no problem with using "ездила" in this case.– ArtemixDec 21, 2016 at 8:30
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2We can use "ходила" meaning "была" more generally, even if means of transport were used. But other verbs like ездила, бегала, моталась are also used.– V.V.Dec 21, 2016 at 13:41
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1 Answer
We sometimes use the verb ходить in a broad sense of быть.Consider it not like a movement (on foot),unless the post office is not very far, but more like an event. We say ходила even if we used means of transport. We also use other words in the same sense (бегать,slang мотаться,слетать), all of them meaning to quickly go and come back.
Где ты была?– Да на почту ходила/бегала/моталась/слетала.
It doesn't mean you actually ran or flew somewhere, you just visited the place. But it is also correct to use ездила, if you want to mention the means of transport.
