Learn Hardcore Russian: Сначала я делаю домашнее задание, а потом гуляю в парке. - First I do my homework, and then I walk in the park.

regular routines: Сначала я делаю домашнее задание, а потом гуляю в парке.
→ “First I do my homework, then I go for a walk in the park (that’s my usual order).”

This sentence sounds like a general habit or a typical sequence, not a one‑time future plan.

If you want a specific future sequence, you’d more likely use perfective verbs:

Сначала я сделаю домашнее задание, а потом погуляю в парке.
→ “First I’ll do my homework, and then I’ll go for a walk in the park (this time).”

So:

делаю / гуляю (imperfective present) → habitual / general statement.
сделаю / погуляю (perfective future) → one particular future situation.

Why is the conjunction а used here instead of и?

Both а and и can be translated as “and”, but they’re used differently.

и simply adds one thing to another:
Я делаю домашнее задание и гуляю в парке.
→ “I do my homework and (I) walk in the park.” (just listing actions)
а often shows:
- contrast, or
- a change/shift (time, situation, activity, etc.)

In Сначала я делаю домашнее задание, а потом гуляю в парке, а marks a shift in time and activity: first one thing, then a different thing. It’s “and then / whereas then” rather than just “and”.

Using и потом is possible, but а потом is more natural for “and then” in sequences like this.

Why is there no я before гуляю? Is it normal to omit the subject pronoun?

Yes, this is completely normal in Russian.

First clause: я делаю – the subject я (“I”) is stated.
Second clause: гуляю – the subject is understood to be the same person, so я is dropped.

Russian is a pro‑drop language: when the subject is clear from context and the verb ending, you can leave the pronoun out:

Я читаю и пишу. (not Я читаю и я пишу in normal speech)
Сначала я ужинаю, а потом смотрю фильм.

You can say а потом я гуляю в парке, but it adds a bit of emphasis on я and is less neutral here.

What case is домашнее задание, and how do the forms agree?

Домашнее задание is in the accusative singular:

задание – neuter noun, nominative и accusative singular = задание
домашнее – neuter singular accusative form of the adjective домашний (“home, homework”), agreeing with задание.

Breakdown:

делаю (что?) – “I do what?” → direct object in the accusative.
Answer: домашнее задание.

Since задание is inanimate, its accusative form is identical to the nominative: задание. The adjective домашнее matches it in gender (neuter), number (singular), and case (accusative).

Why is it в парке and not в парк?

The preposition в can take either:

Accusative → direction / movement into a place
Prepositional → location in a place

Here we have гуляю (“I walk / stroll”) meaning being inside and moving around within the park, not going into it.

So:

гуляю в парке → I am walking in the park (location → prepositional: парке)
иду в парк → I am going to the park (direction → accusative: в парк)

That’s why the form is парке (prepositional singular of парк).

Where is the stress in these words, and how are they pronounced?

Stressed syllables are in bold caps:

СначАла – sna-CHÁ-la
дЕлаю – DÉ-la-yu
домАшнее – do-MÁSH-nee-ye
задАние – za-DÁ-nee-ye
потОм – pa-TÓM
гуляЮ – gu-lya-YÚ
пАрке – PÁR-ke

Knowing the stress is important because wrong stress can make the word hard to recognize for native speakers.

Can I change the word order of сначала and потом? For example, can I say Я сначала делаю…?

Yes, there is some flexibility. All of these are possible, with slight differences in emphasis:

Сначала я делаю домашнее задание, а потом гуляю в парке.
(neutral; focuses on the time sequence as a whole)
Я сначала делаю домашнее задание, а потом гуляю в парке.
(slight emphasis that I first do homework, then walk; still very natural)
Сначала делаю домашнее задание, а потом гуляю в парке.
(subject я omitted; still clear from verb endings)

The most typical and textbook-like is exactly the original: Сначала я…, а потом…

What’s the difference between домашнее задание and домашняя работа? Both are sometimes translated as “homework”.

Both exist, but they’re used a bit differently:

домашнее задание
- literally: “home assignment”
- most standard term for school homework
- делать домашнее задание – to do homework
домашняя работа
- literally: “home work / house work”
- can mean chores or work done at home (not necessarily school tasks)
- делать домашнюю работу – can mean “do work at home” or “do housework”, depending on context

For “I do my homework (for school)”, the natural phrase is делаю домашнее задание.

How is гулять different from verbs like идти and ходить (“to go / to walk”)?

All can involve walking, but they’re used differently:

гулять – to stroll / to go for a walk / hang out outdoors, often for leisure.
- гулять в парке – to walk around the park for fun.
идти – to go (one direction, now or in the near future), often with a destination.
- идти в парк – to go (on foot) to the park.
ходить – to go regularly / back and forth, or without focus on direction.
- я часто хожу в парк – I often go to the park.

So:

гуляю в парке focuses on being in the park and walking there for leisure, not on the movement toward the park.

Why is there a comma before а потом?

The sentence has two clauses:

Сначала я делаю домашнее задание
(а) потом гуляю в парке

They’re connected by the conjunction а. In Russian, when а connects two independent clauses, you normally use a comma before it:

..., а ...

So: Сначала я делаю домашнее задание, а потом гуляю в парке.

If а потом were just linking shorter phrases inside a single clause, punctuation could differ, but here it clearly separates two actions.

How do I know if в парке means “in a park” or “in the park” without articles in Russian?

Russian doesn’t have articles (a / an / the), so в парке can mean:

“in a park”
“in the park”

Context tells you which English article to use:

If you’ve already mentioned a specific park or both speakers know which park, you’d translate it as “in the park”.
If it’s just any park, not specified, you’d translate it as “in a park”.

Russian itself doesn’t change form; в парке covers both meanings.