Learn Hardcore Russian: Вчера я прочитал интересный пост в интернете. - Yesterday I read an interesting post on the internet.

прочитал (past tense of прочитать) shows a completed, one-time action: you started reading the post and finished it.
читал (past tense of читать) would emphasize the process, not the completion. For example:
- Вчера я читал интересный пост в интернете can imply “I was reading an interesting post yesterday” (maybe you didn’t finish, or the fact of reading is more important than completion).

Since we usually care that we finished reading the post, прочитал is more natural here.

Why прочитал and not прочитала or прочитали? How does gender and number work in the past tense?

In Russian, past-tense verbs agree with the subject’s gender and number.

The infinitive is прочитать. For the past tense you drop -ь and add -л, then adjust for gender/number:

Masculine singular: прочитал – “(he / I, male) read (finished)”
Feminine singular: прочитала – “(she / I, female) read (finished)”
Neuter singular: прочитало – rarely used, usually with neuter nouns (e.g. оно прочитало)
Plural (any gender): прочитали – “(we / they / you-pl.) read (finished)”

So:

A man would say: Вчера я прочитал интересный пост…
A woman would say: Вчера я прочитала интересный пост…
A group: Вчера мы прочитали интересный пост…

Why is я included? Could you say Вчера прочитал интересный пост в интернете without я?

Yes, you can omit я, especially in spoken or informal Russian, if it’s clear who is speaking.

Вчера я прочитал интересный пост… – neutral, standard.
Вчера прочитал интересный пост… – still correct; sounds a bit more conversational or like a diary note (“Yesterday read an interesting post…” where “I” is understood).

Russian often drops subject pronouns when the subject is clear from context and the verb form (which shows person and often gender).

What case is интересный пост, and why does it look like the dictionary form?

The dictionary (nominative singular) forms are:

интересный (interesting – masculine singular adjective)
пост (post – masculine inanimate noun)

In the sentence, интересный пост is the direct object of the verb прочитал, so it should be in the accusative case.

For masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative singular = nominative singular.
So:

Nominative: интересный пост – “an interesting post” (as a subject)
Accusative: интересный пост – “(I read) an interesting post” (as an object)

They look identical, which is normal for masculine inanimate nouns and their adjectives.

Why is it в интернете and not something like на интернете?

The phrase в интернете is an idiomatic, fixed expression in Russian meaning “on the Internet / online.”

в
- prepositional case интернете literally: “in the Internet”
But idiomatically it corresponds to English “on the Internet.”

Russian uses в for many abstract or “space-like” environments:

в школе – at school
в городе – in the city
в тюрьме – in prison
в интернете – on the Internet

На интернете is not used in standard Russian. You can say в сети (“on the net / in the network”) or в онлайнe (colloquial “online”), but в интернете is the default.

What case is интернете, and how is it formed?

Интернет is a masculine noun. In в интернете, it’s in the prepositional case because of the preposition в (when it means “in/on” a location or domain).

Declension (singular):

Nominative: интернет – “the internet” (subject)
Prepositional: в интернете – “on the Internet”

Formation rule for many masculine nouns:

Add -е in the prepositional:
- город → в городе
- магазин → в магазине
- интернет → в интернете

Why is вчера at the beginning? Can I say Я вчера прочитал… or Я прочитал вчера…?

All of these word orders are grammatically correct, but they slightly change emphasis:

Вчера я прочитал интересный пост…
- Neutral, common. Slight emphasis on when: Yesterday I read…
Я вчера прочитал интересный пост…
- Very natural as well; focuses first on the subject я, then adds when.
Я прочитал вчера интересный пост…
- Also possible, but putting вчера after the verb can sound a bit more “afterthought” or conversational:
  “I read yesterday an interesting post…”

Russian word order is relatively flexible. Adverbs of time like вчера, сегодня, завтра can appear at the beginning, after the subject, or after the verb, without changing the basic meaning.

Why doesn’t Russian use a word like “a” or “an” in интересный пост?

Russian has no articles (no equivalent of “a / an / the”).

The phrase интересный пост can mean:

“an interesting post”
“the interesting post”
just “interesting post” in a general sense

The specific meaning is inferred from context, not from a separate article word. In most contexts, интересный пост with a past-tense verb like прочитал will naturally be understood as “an interesting post.”

What’s the difference between пост, статья, and сообщение in this context?

All can appear online, but they have different nuances:

пост – a post, especially on social media, blogs, forums. Shorter, more informal content.
- интересный пост в интернете – “an interesting (blog / social media) post on the Internet”
статья – an article, usually longer and more structured, like in a newspaper, magazine, or serious website.
- интересную статью в интернете – “an interesting article on the Internet”
сообщение – a message (chat message, SMS, email, forum message).
- сообщение в мессенджере / на форуме – a message in a messenger / on a forum

In the original sentence, пост suggests something like a blog post or social media post.

How do you pronounce прочитал and where is the stress?

Pronunciation: прочитал – [пр-ра-чи-ТА́Л]

The stress is on the last syllable: прочита́л.
The о in the first syllable (про-) is unstressed and sounds closer to [a] in casual speech, something like pra-chi-TAL.
The ч is like “ch” in church.
The final л is a clear [l].

Syllables: про / чи / тал → stress on тал.

Is вчера a prepositional phrase like “in the morning,” or something else?

Вчера is an adverb, not a prepositional phrase. It means “yesterday” on its own and does not need a preposition.

Compare:

вчера – yesterday (adverb)
сегодня – today
завтра – tomorrow
утром – in the morning (also adverb, from утро “morning”)
вчера утром – “yesterday morning”

You only use prepositions with certain time expressions (e.g. в понедельник – on Monday, в мае – in May), but simple words like вчера stand alone.

What is the full conjugation pair for читать / прочитать?

These two form an aspect pair: imperfective / perfective.

Imperfective – читать (to read, be reading, used to read):

Present / future (simple present for imperfective):

я читаю – I read / I am reading
ты читаешь
он/она/оно читает
мы читаем
вы читаете
они читают

Past:

он читал
она читала
оно читало
они читали

Future with imperfective uses быть + infinitive: буду читать – will be reading / will read (over time, not completed once).

Perfective – прочитать (to read through, to finish reading):

No present tense (perfective normally doesn’t have “present” for ongoing action). It has a simple future:

я прочитаю – I will read (and finish)
ты прочитаешь
он/она/оно прочитает
мы прочитаем
вы прочитаете
они прочитают

Past:

он прочитал
она прочитала
оно прочитало
они прочитали

In the original sentence, прочитал is past perfective: read and finished.