Learn Hardcore Russian: На семинаре была интересная презентация новых методов. - At the seminar, there was an interesting presentation of new methods.

In Russian, the preposition на is used to indicate location at events (seminars, concerts, conferences), whereas в typically denotes being inside enclosed spaces. With на the noun семинар takes the prepositional case (семинаре).

What case is новых методов and why is it used here?

Новых методов is in the genitive plural. After презентация, which expresses “presentation of something,” Russian uses the partitive/genitive to show what is being presented: презентация новых методов = “presentation of new methods.”

Why is the verb была used here and not есть or another tense?

Была is the past tense form of быть for feminine singular. It’s used in an existential construction (“there was…”) to state that this event happened in the past. Because презентация is feminine, the verb agrees in gender.

What is the subject of the sentence—на семинаре or интересная презентация новых методов?

The grammatical subject is интересная презентация новых методов. На семинаре is an adverbial phrase indicating place, and была is the existential verb introducing the subject.

Why are there no articles like “a” or “the” in this sentence?

Russian does not have articles. Definiteness or indefiniteness is implied by context, word order, or additional words (e.g. этот, какой-то). Here интересная презентация can mean “an interesting presentation” or “the interesting presentation,” depending on the surrounding text.