Breakdown of После подкаста мы с друзьями обсуждаем тему в общем чате.
Questions & Answers about После подкаста мы с друзьями обсуждаем тему в общем чате.
In Russian, the preposition после (after) always requires the genitive case.
- подкаст – nominative (dictionary form)
- подкаста – genitive singular
So you must say:
- после подкаста – after the podcast
- после фильма – after the movie
- после работы – after work
Using подкаст in the nominative after после would be grammatically wrong.
Мы с друзьями literally is we with (my) friends. It’s a very natural, idiomatic way to say my friends and I in Russian.
- мы с друзьями – my friends and I / we together with my friends
- я и мои друзья – also correct, but a bit more formal or “bookish” in many contexts.
Russians very often use this pattern:
- Мы с братом пошли в кино. – My brother and I went to the cinema.
- Мы с коллегами обсудим проект. – My colleagues and I will discuss the project.
So мы с друзьями is the most natural spoken choice here.
Друзьями is instrumental plural of друзья (friends).
Pattern:
- Nominative plural: друзья
- Instrumental plural: друзьями
The preposition с (with) in the sense of together with someone usually takes the instrumental case:
- с другом – with a friend
- с друзьями – with friends
- с родителями – with (my) parents
So мы с друзьями = literally we with friends, with друзьями in the instrumental because of с.
Обсуждаем is the present tense, imperfective aspect of обсуждать (to discuss).
In Russian, the present imperfective is also used for regular, repeated actions, similar to English “we usually discuss / we (always) discuss”:
- После подкаста мы с друзьями обсуждаем тему…
→ After the podcast, my friends and I (usually) discuss the topic…
If you say:
- После подкаста мы с друзьями обсудим тему.
that’s future perfective (we will discuss it (once, as a completed event)). It sounds like a specific plan for a particular time, not a general habit.
So обсуждаем is chosen to show a habitual or typical action.
Тему is the accusative singular of тема (topic, theme).
- Nominative: тема – the topic (subject of the sentence)
- Accusative: тему – the topic (as a direct object)
Обсуждать (to discuss) takes a direct object in the accusative:
- обсуждать тему – to discuss a topic
- обсуждать фильм – to discuss a movie
- обсуждать проблему – to discuss a problem
So in обсуждаем тему, тему is the thing being discussed, so it must be in the accusative case.
Russian has no articles (no a, an, the). The phrase обсуждаем тему can mean:
- discuss a topic
- discuss the topic
The definiteness (a vs the) is understood from context. Here, because you just mentioned a specific подкаст, speakers will naturally interpret тему as the topic (of the podcast / episode).
If you need to be explicitly specific, you can add a demonstrative:
- обсуждаем эту тему – we discuss this topic.
- обсуждаем ту тему – we discuss that topic.
В общем чате uses the prepositional case with the preposition в.
- Nominative: общий чат – a general/common chat
- Prepositional: в общем чате – in the general chat
With в meaning in / inside (a place), you normally use the prepositional case:
- в школе – at school
- в городе – in the city
- в чате – in the chat
So в общем чате is literally in the general chat (room / group).
For online spaces like chats, groups, and forums, Russian most commonly uses в (in), treating them as “places” you are inside:
- в чате – in the chat
- в группе – in the group
- в чате друзей – in the friends’ chat
На is used with some other types of locations or events (на улице, на работе, на концерте), but на чате is not standard in this meaning. You may see на общем чате in some technical or very specific contexts, but for normal speech в общем чате is the natural choice.
Yes, Russian word order is relatively flexible. These all are grammatical:
- После подкаста мы с друзьями обсуждаем тему в общем чате.
- После подкаста мы обсуждаем тему с друзьями в общем чате.
- После подкаста с друзьями мы обсуждаем тему в общем чате.
The core meaning is the same: after the podcast, we discuss the topic with friends in the general chat.
Nuances:
- Мы с друзьями обсуждаем… slightly emphasizes we together with friends as one group.
- мы обсуждаем тему с друзьями feels a bit more neutral: we discuss the topic with friends.
All are acceptable; the original is very natural and conversational.
In Russian, мы с друзьями is treated as a single subject group, not as a main clause plus an inserted phrase. It’s a fixed, very common pattern:
- Мы с папой поехали в магазин. – My dad and I went to the store.
- Мы с соседями поговорили. – My neighbors and I talked.
Because of that, Russian does not use a comma between мы and с друзьями. Writing мы, с друзьями, … would look like you’re inserting “with friends” as an extra comment, which is not the intention here.
You can hear sentences like that in casual speech, especially if the subject is obvious from context. However:
- После подкаста мы с друзьями обсуждаем тему…
is clearer and stylistically better, especially in writing.
Dropping the pronoun мы can sound a bit elliptical or informal, like something you’d say in quick speech or in a chat message when it’s already clear who “we” are.
Обсуждаем comes from обсуждать:
- Aspect: imperfective (used for ongoing, repeated, or habitual actions)
- Infinitive: обсуждать – to discuss
- 1st person plural present: мы обсуждаем – we discuss / we are discussing
Present tense forms (imperfective):
- я обсуждаю
- ты обсуждаешь
- он/она обсуждает
- мы обсуждаем
- вы обсуждаете
- они обсуждают
The perfective partner is обсудить (to discuss and finish, to have discussed).
Мы обсудим тему – we will (at some point, completely) discuss the topic.
Подкаст is a masculine noun. Indicators:
- It ends in a hard consonant (-ст) in its base form → typically masculine.
- Genitive singular: подкаста (the typical -а ending for masculine inanimate nouns).
Other similar masculine nouns:
- текст → текста
- урок → урока
- фильм → фильма
So после подкаста follows the same pattern as после урока, после фильма, etc.