What is the difference between "Куда ты идёшь?" and "Куда ты собрался?"

Question

I recently learned that

Куда ты собрался?

usually gets translated as

Where are you going?

Or, at least it does on Reverso.

This raised at least a couple of questions for me. The first is the title of this post — What is the difference between

Kуда ты идёшь?

and

Куда ты собрался?

The second thing that piqued my curiosity is the fact that "собрался" is past tense perfective. If one makes the decision to use собраться, why not use a future tense form of it? But, as you can see from the Google Ngram below, "Куда ты соберёшься?" doesn't even make the cut:

I am also curious about the frequency of past tense perfective verbs being translated as present tense verbs in English. Does this happen with great frequency? Are there certain types of verbs that tend to do this? Is "собираться" one of them, and, if so, does this group of verbs have a category with a name? And, finally, is there a particular name for when a verb is past tense in the original language, but present tense in the translated language?

If you want more context, this whole inquiry came about after a learning session in which one of my Russian tutors on iTalki is helping me understand the dialog in this short film:

Ночь

The phrase in question is found just shortly after minute 1:20, and conjugated for a female obviously (собралась vs. собрался).

I didn't realize I had so many questions about this phrase until after the session ended, but that's okay because somebody else might be curious about this, too.

Answer 1

This depends on context — particularly whether the question is posed while the person addressed is preparing to leave, or in the process of actually leaving.

1. While preparing to leave (e.g. ironing their clothes):
   • Kуда ты идёшь? - Appropriate;
   • Куда ты собрался? - Not appropriate because preparations to leave are not yet concluded;
   • Куда ты собираешься? (Where are you preparing to go?) - Appropriate, because the question is about an ongoing process;
2. After preparations are concluded, but before starting off (e.g. the person addressed has put on new clothes, but hasn't walked out the door):
   • Kуда ты идёшь? - Appropriate;
   • Куда ты собрался? - Appropriate. It may imply disapproval — particularly if there were no visible preparations.
3. When someone is in the process of leaving (e.g. on the street):
   • Kуда ты идёшь? - Appropriate;
   • Куда ты собрался? - Appropriate; The crux here is that someone's appearance and/or behavior is unusual and suggests some special occasion.

Answer 2

Let me start with the basics. Собирать means 'to gather', 'to put lots of things in one place'. Собираться means 'to gather oneself (or one's things)', 'to pack (one's belongings)'. Соберись! could mean either 'pack yourself!' or 'pull yourself together!', 'focus!', 'get ready!'). Getting ready for something implies being about to do it, in your example, to go.

Собрался is in the past tense because you're finished getting ready and now you're about to go. The full phrase might have been:

• Куда ты собрался идти? (Where have you gotten yourself ready to go?)

But usually in this phrase идти is dropped as it's already implied by куда, leaving just:

• Куда ты собрался? Where are you off to?

Answer 3

I believe that собираться can effectively be compared to English (to be) about to. That would explain why it doesn't work in the future, since we, similarly, wouldn't say you'll be about to go except in some esoteric context. So my interpretation of Куда ты собрался? would be "Where are/were you off to?", or with a touch of disapproval, "Where do you think you're going?"

Another interpretation of собрался is was going to when we talk about future intentions in a past scenario. That's why there's no future equivalent, because in the present, we would just use the future tense:

[past intention] I was going to call you when I had the time, but it never panned out.

[present intention] I'm going to call you when I have the time.

Answer 4

The main difference in the use of perfective "собраться-собрался" and impf. "собираться-собираешься" consists in the nuances they express. It can be one of "packing up/putting something on, clothes etc" or "planning, intending to do smth". Irrespective of whether you see someone packing up their things/belongings or preparing/putting on/changing clothes or having already put them on, or you run into them in the doorway, you can use either "собрался" or "собираешься" in the meaning of "having planned/intending to do smth":

• (someone is packing up their belongings or putting on/changing clothes)

  -"Куда собрался/собираешься/вознамерился/намереваешься?" (to put it literally, it would mean: "What have you planned to go to do, that I see you packing up/getting dressed?")

  -"Cобрался/собираюсь/вознамерился/намереваюсь: погулять/cходить за продуктами/съездить в Вегас/уйти от тебя/совершить ограбление/научиться танцевать самбу! (I've planned/intend to...).

• (you meet someone in the doorway, who's already dressed)

  -"Куда собрался/собираешься/вознамерился/намереваешься?"

  -"Cобрался/собираюсь/вознамерился/намереваюсь: погулять/cходить за продуктами/съездить в Вегас/уйти от тебя/совершить ограбление/научиться танцевать самбу!

Answer 5

In English the verb "to be going to" has 2 separate meanings: 1. To move physically, usually by foot; 2. To prepare, have the intention to do something.