После обновления настройки звука стали удобнее.

After the update the sound settings became more convenient.

Breakdown of После обновления настройки звука стали удобнее.

• после: after
• обновление: the update
• стать: to become
• удобнее: more convenient
• настройка: the setting
• звук: the sound

Questions & Answers about После обновления настройки звука стали удобнее.

Why is it После обновления, not после обновление?

In Russian, the preposition после (after) always takes the genitive case.

• обновление = nominative singular (dictionary form) – “an update”
• обновления = genitive singular – “of the update”

So:

• ❌ после обновление – wrong case
• ✅ после обновления – “after the update”

Any noun after после must be in the genitive:

• после работы – after work
• после урока – after the lesson
• после обновления – after the update

What exactly is обновления here: a verb or a noun?

Обновления here is a noun, not a verb.

• The noun: обновление – “update” (nominative singular)
• In the sentence, it’s обновления – genitive singular, required by после.

So the phrase после обновления literally means “after the update.”

If it were a verb, you’d see something like после того как мы обновили… (“after we updated…”), where обновили is a verb form.

What does настройки mean, and why is it plural?

Настройки is the plural form of настройка, which means “setting” (as in a configuration option).

• настройка – one setting
• настройки – settings (plural)

In tech/software contexts, Russian almost always uses the plural:

• настройки звука – sound settings
• настройки экрана – display settings
• настройки системы – system settings

So настройки in the sentence is “settings” and is the subject of the sentence:
Настройки звука стали удобнее. – “The sound settings became more convenient.”

What case is настройки звука, and which part is the subject?

The phrase breaks down like this:

• настройки – nominative plural, subject of the sentence (“settings”)
• звука – genitive singular, dependent on настройки (“of sound”)

So:

• настройки answers “what became more convenient?” → subject
• звука clarifies what kind of settings → “of sound” = sound settings

Literally: “After the update, the settings of sound became more convenient.”
Natural English: “After the update, the sound settings became more convenient.”

Why is it звука, not звук?

Because звук (“sound”) is used here in a genitive relationship:

• настройки звука = settings of sound → “sound settings”

In Russian, this kind of “X of Y” relationship is usually expressed with the genitive case for Y:

• цвет машины – the color of the car
• страницы книги – the pages of the book
• настройки звука – the settings of sound → sound settings

So звук (nominative) becomes звука (genitive singular).

What does стали mean here? Is it just “were”?

Стали is the past tense of the verb стать, which means “to become.”

So стали удобнее literally means “became more convenient.”

• были удобнее would mean “were more convenient” (describing a state, not a change).
• стали удобнее emphasizes change: they were less convenient before, then (after the update) they became more convenient.

So the sentence is about the result of the update: the settings changed and are now more convenient than before.

What is удобнее exactly? Is it an adjective or adverb?

Удобнее is the comparative form of the adjective удобный (“convenient / comfortable”).

Base form:

• удобный – convenient

Comparative (simple form):

• удобнее – more convenient

Comparatives like лучше (better), хуже (worse), быстрее (faster), удобнее (more convenient) are invariable in form: they do not change for gender, number, or case in this simple form.

So:

• Настройки стали удобнее. – The settings became more convenient.
• Стало удобнее. – It became more convenient.

In English we often say “more convenient”; Russian uses this single comparative form instead of “more + adjective.”

Could we say стали более удобными instead of стали удобнее? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

• После обновления настройки звука стали более удобными.

Difference in nuance:

• стали удобнее

  • Short, neutral, very natural in everyday speech
  • Uses the simple comparative (удобнее)

• стали более удобными

  • Slightly more formal or heavy
  • Uses более (“more”) + full adjective in instrumental case (удобными) after стали

Meaning-wise, they are essentially the same: “became more convenient.”
In ordinary conversation and writing, стали удобнее is more common and stylistically lighter.

Can I change the word order to Настройки звука стали удобнее после обновления?

Yes, that is perfectly correct:

• После обновления настройки звука стали удобнее.
• Настройки звука стали удобнее после обновления.

Both mean the same thing.

Russian word order is fairly flexible. Putting После обновления first slightly emphasizes the time frame (“After the update…”). Putting it at the end is a bit more neutral, like in English: “The sound settings became more convenient after the update.”

Who or what is the subject? There is no “they” in Russian.

The “they” in English corresponds to настройки звука in Russian.

Russian often does not use a separate pronoun when the subject is already a noun in the sentence. So:

• После обновления настройки звука стали удобнее.
  Literally: “After the update, sound settings became more convenient.”
  Natural English: “After the update, the sound settings became more convenient” / “After the update, they became more convenient.”

So the subject is настройки звука, and стали удобнее is what happened to them.

Could I say После обновления стало удобнее without mentioning настройки звука?

Yes, you can. That would be an impersonal sentence:

• После обновления стало удобнее. – “After the update, it became more convenient.”

This is natural if the context already makes it clear what exactly became more convenient (e.g. you’re already talking about the app, the interface, etc.).
If you want to be precise and explicit about what changed, you keep настройки звука. If the context is clear, you can drop it and use the general стало удобнее (“it’s easier / more convenient now”).

How would I say this using a verb “to update” instead of the noun обновление?

You could use a clause with после того как (“after [the fact] that…”):

• После того как мы обновили систему, настройки звука стали удобнее.
  “After we updated the system, the sound settings became more convenient.”

Here:

• обновили is the past tense verb (“updated”).
• The meaning is very close, but now you explicitly mention we updated rather than “after the update.”