Learn Hardcore Russian: После лекции студенты начали живой разговор о методах исследования. - After the lecture, students started a lively conversation about research methods.

The preposition после always requires the genitive. Whenever you say “after something” in Russian (after a lecture, after work, after the game), that “something” goes in the genitive: после лекции, после работы, после матча.

Why is начали used here instead of the imperfective начинали?

начали is the past-tense, plural form of the perfective verb начать (“to start, to begin”). Using the perfective emphasizes that the act of starting the conversation was a single, completed event. If you said они начинали разговор, you’d imply an ongoing or repeated attempt to start, which doesn’t fit the straightforward “they began” sense here.

Why is разговор in the accusative case?

разговор is the direct object of the verb начали (“they began what?”). Inanimate masculine nouns ending in a consonant have identical nominative and accusative forms, so разговор stays the same shape.

Why is it о методах исследования with методах in the prepositional plural and исследования in the genitive?

Two things are going on:

The preposition о (“about”) takes the prepositional case, so методы → методах.
исследования (“research”) is in the genitive because it’s attached to методы in an “X of Y” construction – methods of research. In Russian, that “of Y” is genitive.

The sentence starts После лекции студенты начали…. Could you also say Студенты начали живой разговор после лекции?

Yes. Russian word order is quite flexible. Moving после лекции to the end is perfectly grammatical. Placing it first just highlights the time (“after the lecture…”), but the core meaning stays the same.

Why is there no article like “the” or “a” in Russian?

Russian does not have definite or indefinite articles. Whether something is “a conversation” or “the conversation” is inferred from context or added with words like этот (this) or какой-то (some).

What does живой разговор literally mean, and why use живой here?

Literally живой means “alive.” A живой разговор is an “alive” or “lively” conversation—i.e. animated, engaging, not dull or one-sided.

Could you use беседа or дискуссия instead of разговор, and what’s the nuance?

– разговор is a general chat or talk.
– беседа is slightly more formal or polite, often implying a respectful exchange.
– дискуссия implies a structured debate or discussion, possibly with conflicting viewpoints.
So your choice depends on the tone and formality.

Can you replace the preposition о with про, as in разговор про методы исследования?

In everyday spoken Russian, про is very common and means the same as о. You’d hear разговор про методы исследования in informal contexts. In formal writing or speech, о методах исследования is preferred.

Why say начали разговор instead of simply обсуждали методы исследования?

Saying начали разговор highlights the moment they “started a conversation” as an event. Using обсуждали методы исследования (“were discussing research methods”) focuses more on the content of what they were doing and implies the discussion was already underway. It’s a subtle difference in emphasis.