Вчера я прослушал интересную песню.

Yesterday I listened to an interesting song.

Breakdown of Вчера я прослушал интересную песню.

• я: I
• вчера: yesterday
• интересный: interesting
• песня: the song
• прослушать: to listen

Questions & Answers about Вчера я прослушал интересную песню.

Why is the adverb вчера placed at the beginning of the sentence?

In Russian, adverbs of time often come at the beginning to set the temporal context. Вчера means “yesterday,” immediately informing the listener when the action took place.

What does the verb прослушал signify, and why isn’t слушал used here instead?

Прослушал is the perfective form of the verb “to listen,” which implies that the action is complete—meaning you listened to the entire song. In contrast, слушал (the imperfective form) would indicate an ongoing or habitual action without a clear endpoint.

Why does the adjective appear as интересную in this sentence?

Russian adjectives must agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number, and case. Since песню is a feminine noun in the accusative case, the adjective “интересный” changes its ending to интересную to match both the gender and case of the noun.

How is the case of песню determined, and why is no preposition used?

Песню is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb. In Russian, direct objects typically take the accusative form without the need for a preposition, unlike English where you might say “listened to a song.”

What indicates that the action happened in the past?

The past tense in Russian is marked by the suffix -л in прослушал, and when combined with the adverb вчера, it clearly shows that the action occurred in the past.

Why is the pronoun я written in lowercase in Russian?

In Russian, the first-person singular pronoun я is always written in lowercase, regardless of its position in the sentence. This is a standard typographical rule in Russian, differing from English where “I” is always capitalized.