Learn Hardcore Russian: Когда я тихо шагаю по парку без телефона, город кажется как будто дальше и тише. - When I quietly walk through the park without my phone, the city seems as if it were farther away and quieter.

идти (иду) – just “to go / to walk” in a neutral way.
гулять (гуляю) – “to stroll / to walk for pleasure,” focuses on the idea of a leisurely walk.
шагать (шагаю) – literally “to step,” “to walk step by step,” a bit more visual/poetic, with a sense of measured footsteps.

Тихо шагаю makes you picture quiet, individual steps. It’s more imagery-heavy and slightly literary than тихо иду or тихо гуляю.

What does тихо mean here, and why not тихий?

тихо is an adverb: “quietly,” “in a quiet way.”
тихий is an adjective: “quiet” (a quiet park, a quiet city).

You need an adverb to describe how you are walking:

я тихо шагаю – “I walk quietly.”

Using я тихий шагаю would be ungrammatical, because you’d be using an adjective where an adverb is required.

Why is it по парку and not в парке?

Both are possible, but they focus on different things:

по парку (with по
- dative) – movement within the space, along paths, around the park.
- Implies “throughout / around the park”: I walk around inside the park, covering space.
в парке (with в
- prepositional) – location inside the park.
- More like “in the park (as a place),” not emphasizing moving from place to place.

So шагаю по парку highlights the process of moving through the park, step by step.

Why is парку in the dative case?

The preposition по normally takes the dative case in this meaning (“along / around / through an area”):

по
- парк → по парку
  (Nom. парк → Dat. парку)

So it’s not that “парку” is chosen by itself; it’s chosen because по demands the dative here.

What’s the exact nuance of без телефона? Does it mean “without my phone”?

Yes, in context it naturally means “without my phone,” even though мой is not said.

In Russian, possessive pronouns (мой, твой, его etc.) are often dropped when the owner is obvious from context:

без телефона – without a phone (in practice: without my phone, since we’re talking about my walking).

The case is genitive, because без always requires genitive:

без
- телефон → без телефона (Gen. sing.).

Nuance: this usually means you physically don’t have the phone with you, not just that it’s switched off.

Why is there a comma after телефона, but not before как будто?

The comma after телефона separates the subordinate time clause from the main clause:
- Когда я тихо шагаю по парку без телефона, – “When I quietly walk in the park without my phone,”
- город кажется… – “the city seems…”
There is no comma before как будто because here как будто is used as a particle inside the predicate, not as a conjunction introducing a full clause.

Compare:

Город кажется как будто дальше и тише.
– “The city seems as if it were farther away and quieter.”
Here как будто modifies дальше и тише; there is no separate clause, so no comma.
Город кажется, как будто он дальше и тише.
– “It seems as if the city is farther away and quieter.”
Here как будто introduces the clause он дальше и тише, so a comma is required.

What exactly does кажется mean here, and why no мне?

Казаться basically means “to seem / to appear.”

There are two common patterns:

Город кажется дальше и тише.
– “The city seems farther and quieter.”
The city is grammatically the subject.
Мне кажется, что город дальше и тише.
– “It seems to me that the city is farther and quieter.”
Here мне (“to me”) is a dative experiencer.

In your sentence, город кажется… is a neutral description: “the city seems…”.
You could say мне город кажется как будто дальше и тише to make the subjectivity even clearer, but it’s not obligatory.

What is the role of как будто in город кажется как будто дальше и тише?

Как будто means roughly “as if,” “as though.”

With кажется, it softens and makes the perception more subjective and slightly dreamy:

город кажется дальше и тише
– “the city seems farther and quieter” (more straightforward description).
город кажется как будто дальше и тише
– “the city seems as if it were farther away and quieter” (more imaginative, less literal).

You could also use будто or словно in place of как будто:

город кажется будто дальше и тише
город кажется словно дальше и тише

They’re very close in meaning; как будто is very common in spoken language.

Is дальше here an adverb or an adjective? Why not something like более далёким?

Дальше is the comparative form of далеко (“far”) and also of далёкий (“distant”). In this sentence, it works as a predicative: “farther / more distant.”

Russian very often uses these short comparative forms instead of “более + adjective”:

город кажется дальше – “the city seems farther (away).”
город кажется более далёким – grammatical but more formal and heavier; not needed here.

So дальше is the natural, everyday choice. It functions semantically like “farther” (adverb) but syntactically as part of the predicate, similar to “The city seems far(ther).”

How is тише working here? Is it from тихий or тихо?

Тише is the comparative form of both:

adjective тихий (quiet)
adverb тихо (quietly)

Russian has many such “short” comparatives.

In город кажется … тише, it means “quieter / more quiet,” again as a predicative:

город кажется тише – “the city seems quieter.”

Note: тише! can also be used as an imperative “Be quiet(er)!” but here it’s clearly just the comparative in a descriptive sentence.

Is the word order тихо шагаю fixed? Could you say шагаю тихо?

Both are correct:

когда я тихо шагаю по парку…
когда я шагаю тихо по парку…

Differences are subtle:

тихо шагаю slightly foregrounds how you walk (quietly) right after the subject.
шагаю тихо puts a touch more emphasis on the action шагаю, then modifies it.

In everyday speech, both orders sound natural. The original order is just a stylistic choice.

Why is the verb шагаю in the present tense after когда? Could it describe a repeated situation?

Yes. In Russian, present tense + когда is very often used for general, repeated situations:

Когда я тихо шагаю по парку…
– “When(ever) I quietly walk through the park…”

It doesn’t have to refer to this very moment; it can be a general statement about what usually happens in that situation. English often translates this with the present simple (“when I walk”) or “whenever I walk.”