Questions & Answers about Сначала я делаю домашнее задание, потом гуляю в парке.
What does сначала mean exactly, and is it the same as “first” in English?
Сначала literally means “at first / first (in order) / to begin with”.
In this sentence Сначала я делаю домашнее задание…, it introduces the first action in a sequence:
Сначала = first, first of all, at the beginning.
Common near-synonyms:
- сперва – very close in meaning, a bit more colloquial.
- во‑первых – “firstly” in a list of arguments (more formal, used in speech/writing when giving reasons).
So сначала … потом … is a very natural way to say “first … then …” about actions in time.
Why is я missing in the second part: потом гуляю в парке? Is that correct?
Yes, it’s correct and very natural.
Russian often omits the subject pronoun (я, ты, он, она, мы, вы, они) when it is clear from context and verb ending who is doing the action.
- Сначала я делаю домашнее задание, потом гуляю в парке.
The ‑ю ending in гуляю already shows 1st person singular (“I walk”), so repeating я is not necessary.
You can say:
- Сначала я делаю домашнее задание, потом я гуляю в парке.
This is also correct, just a bit more explicit or emphatic. In everyday speech, dropping the second я is more common.