Breakdown of После тяжёлого ужина я чувствую усталость, и живот становится тяжёлым.
Questions & Answers about После тяжёлого ужина я чувствую усталость, и живот становится тяжёлым.
Ужина is in the genitive singular case.
The preposition после (after) in Russian always governs the genitive case.
So:
- nominative: ужин (dinner – subject form)
- genitive: ужина (after dinner, of dinner, no dinner, etc.)
Because we say после + genitive, we must say после ужина, not ✗после ужин.
Adjectives in Russian must agree with the noun in:
- gender
- number
- case
Here, ужина is masculine singular, genitive.
The corresponding adjective form is тяжёлого (masc./neut. genitive singular).
Patterns:
- nominative: тяжёлый ужин (a heavy dinner – dictionary form)
- genitive: тяжёлого ужина (of a heavy dinner / after a heavy dinner)
Because после requires the genitive, both words shift to the genitive:
- после тяжёлого ужина
In meaning and pronunciation, there is no difference.
- Correct full spelling: тяжёлого (with ё)
- Very common printed spelling: тяжелого (with е)
Russian often omits the dots over ё in print, but people still pronounce it as “yo”:
тяжёлого = /тя-жо́-ло-ва/.
So тяжёлого ужина and тяжелого ужина are the same phrase; only the orthography differs.
Because this is a compound sentence with two separate clauses, each with its own subject and verb:
- (Я) чувствую усталость – subject я, verb чувствую
- живот становится тяжёлым – subject живот, verb становится
In Russian, when you have two independent clauses joined by “и”, you usually put a comma before и:
- …, и живот становится тяжёлым.
If you wanted one clause with a shared verb, you could say:
- После тяжёлого ужина я чувствую усталость и тяжесть в животе.
(no comma, because чувствую is shared by both objects: усталость and тяжесть)
Both are correct, but they have different nuances.
Я устал.
Literally “I am tired.”
This is the most natural, everyday way to say you’re tired. It describes your state.Я чувствую усталость.
Literally “I feel fatigue.”
This sounds a bit more formal or more descriptive. It highlights the sensation rather than just the state. It can also imply that you are not yet completely exhausted, but you notice the fatigue coming.
In the sentence:
После тяжёлого ужина я чувствую усталость, и живот становится тяжёлым.
the speaker is describing what they experience after a heavy meal:
they feel fatigue and their stomach/abdomen becomes heavy. It fits a more descriptive style.
Yes, я чувствую себя усталым is also correct, and both are natural.
Я чувствую усталость.
I feel fatigue.
Uses a noun (усталость) as the direct object of чувствовать. Slightly more abstract; focuses on the feeling of fatigue itself.Я чувствую себя усталым.
I feel tired.
Literally: “I feel myself (being) tired.”
Uses себя + adjective in instrumental (усталым) to describe your own state.
In everyday speech, я устал is still the most common. The other two sound more self-observing or somewhat more formal/explicit.
Усталость here is in the accusative singular case, because it is the direct object of the verb чувствовать:
- чувствовать что? → усталость (to feel what? fatigue)
For feminine nouns ending in -ость (e.g. радость, усталость, скорость), the nominative singular and accusative singular are identical:
- nominative: усталость есть. – fatigue exists
- accusative: чувствую усталость. – I feel fatigue
So it looks like nominative, but grammatically it is accusative.
Both are possible, but they say slightly different things.
Живот тяжёлый.
The stomach/belly is heavy. – describes a state.Живот становится тяжёлым.
The stomach/belly is becoming heavy. – describes a change of state, a process.
The verb становиться = “to become, to get (a certain way)”.
In the original sentence, the speaker wants to say that after a heavy dinner, the stomach starts to feel heavy (it wasn’t like that before). Hence становится is used.
With verbs like становиться / стать (to become), Russian normally uses the instrumental case for the new state or role:
- становиться кем? чем? (inst.)
- Он стал учителем. – He became a teacher.
- Вода стала холодной. – The water became cold.
Here:
- живот (subject, nominative)
- становится (verb “becomes”)
- тяжёлым (instrumental case of тяжёлый, masc. sg.)
So:
- живот становится (каким?) тяжёлым – belly becomes heavy.
Тяжёлым is masculine singular, instrumental, agreeing with живот.
Тяжёлый is broad in meaning. It can mean:
- physically heavy: тяжёлый чемодан – a heavy suitcase
- hard/difficult: тяжёлая работа – hard work
- serious/severe: тяжёлая болезнь – a serious illness
- emotionally heavy: тяжёлый разговор – a difficult/tense conversation
In food contexts:
- тяжёлый ужин / тяжёлая еда = “heavy/rich food” – hard to digest, very fatty, greasy, or very large portions.
In живот становится тяжёлым, тяжёлый means the stomach/abdomen feels physically heavy and full, hard to carry around comfortably, like a stuffed, weighed-down feeling.
Живот
Literally “belly” or “abdomen”. Refers to the outside/front of your body, or that general area.
Common in everyday speech:- У меня болит живот. – My tummy / stomach hurts (generic).
Желудок
Literally the stomach organ (inside). More anatomical/medical:- У меня проблемы с желудком. – I have stomach problems (medical/physical).
In this sentence:
…и живот становится тяжёлым.
Живот is natural because the speaker is describing the felt heaviness in the belly area, not talking formally about the internal organ.
Yes, Russian word order is relatively flexible, and both examples are grammatically correct.
Я чувствую усталость после тяжёлого ужина.
- Neutral meaning: I feel fatigue after a heavy dinner.
- Slight emphasis on я чувствую (I feel) first, then when (после...) at the end.
После тяжёлого ужина живот у меня становится тяжёлым.
- Literally: After a heavy dinner, the belly of mine becomes heavy.
- The phrase у меня adds a little emphasis like “my belly” (as opposed to someone else’s), but it’s still natural.
The original:
После тяжёлого ужина я чувствую усталость, и живот становится тяжёлым.
puts the time frame first (после тяжёлого ужина) to set the context, then lists two results. This is very natural in Russian narrative style.
The preposition после (“after”) only gives a time relation (“after X happens”), not necessarily a remote past.
The present tense чувствую here describes what happens now (or typically) after such a dinner:
- После тяжёлого ужина (обычно / сейчас) я чувствую усталость…
After a heavy dinner, I (now) feel tired…
If you wanted to talk about one specific dinner in the past, you could use the past tense:
- После тяжёлого ужина я чувствовал усталость, и живот стал тяжёлым.
After the heavy dinner, I felt tired and my stomach became heavy.
In the original sentence, the present tense sounds like a general or typical reaction.