После первой консультации я почувствовал лёгкое облегчение.

After the first consultation I felt slight relief.

Breakdown of После первой консультации я почувствовал лёгкое облегчение.

• я: I
• после: after
• почувствовать: to feel
• первый: first
• консультация: the consultation
• лёгкий: slight
• облегчение: the relief

Questions & Answers about После первой консультации я почувствовал лёгкое облегчение.

Why is it «После первой консультации» and not «после первая консультация»?

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

• The dictionary form is первая консультация (nominative, used for the subject: “the first consultation”).
• After после, both words must be in the genitive:
  • первая → первой (feminine singular genitive)
  • консультация → консультации (feminine singular genitive)

So:

• После первой консультации = After the first consultation
• Using nominative (после первая консультация) is simply ungrammatical in Russian.

Why does первая change to первой here?

Первая is a feminine adjective/ordinal number in the nominative case, used when it’s the subject or basic form:

• Первая консультация была полезной. – The first consultation was useful.

After после, we need the genitive case, and for feminine singular adjectives/ordinal numbers, the nominative -ая ending changes to genitive -ой:

• первая → первой
• новая → новой
• важная → важной

So первая консультация (nom.) becomes первой консультации (gen.) after после.

What is the difference between почувствовал and чувствовал here?

Both come from the verb чувствовать (to feel), but:

• почувствовал is perfective past (masculine).

  • It focuses on the moment of beginning to feel something or one completed act of feeling.
  • Я почувствовал лёгкое облегчение. – I (suddenly) felt / experienced slight relief.

• чувствовал is imperfective past (masculine).

  • It describes ongoing, repeated or background feeling: I was feeling / used to feel.
  • Я чувствовал лёгкое облегчение. – I was feeling slight relief (for some time).

In this sentence, почувствовал fits better because it’s about the initial change that happened after the first consultation.

What case is «лёгкое облегчение» in, and how does the agreement work?

Облегчение is a neuter noun. In the sentence:

• Я почувствовал (что?) лёгкое облегчение.

It’s the direct object, so it’s in the accusative case. For inanimate neuter nouns, accusative = nominative, so the form облегчение doesn’t change.

The adjective must agree with the noun in gender, number and case:

• Neuter singular nominative/accusative ending is -ое:
  • лёгкое облегчение
  • маленькое окно
  • новое задание

So лёгкое is neuter singular accusative, matching облегчение.

Could you leave out the pronoun я and just say «После первой консультации почувствовал лёгкое облегчение»?

Grammatically, yes, you can drop я:

• После первой консультации почувствовал лёгкое облегчение.

Russian often omits subject pronouns when the subject is clear from context and verb endings. Here:

• почувствовал is masculine singular, so it already tells us the subject is “he” or “I (male)”.

However:

• In written, neutral style, including я is slightly clearer and more standard.
• In informal speech or narrative, dropping я is common if the context already makes it obvious who is speaking.

So both versions are possible; the original is a bit more explicit and neutral.

Why is it лёгкое облегчение and not something like немногое облегчение or маленькое облегчение?

The adjective лёгкий has several meanings; here it means “slight, mild, not very strong” when used with feelings or symptoms:

• лёгкое облегчение – a slight relief
• лёгкая боль – a light/mild pain
• лёгкая тревога – a slight anxiety

Words like немногое облегчение or маленькое облегчение are wrong or very unnatural in this context.

If you want to emphasize “a bit” or “not much,” you’d normally use:

• небольшое облегчение – a small/not very big relief
• or an adverb: немного полегчало – it got a bit better

Is there a more colloquial or everyday way to say the same idea in Russian?

Yes, some very natural alternatives would be:

• После первой консультации мне стало немного легче.
  After the first consultation I felt a bit better.

• После первой консультации мне полегчало.
  I felt some relief after the first consultation.

• После первой консультации я почувствовал(а), что мне стало легче.
  After the first consultation, I felt that I was better.

Your original sentence with лёгкое облегчение is perfectly natural, just a bit more neutral/literary than the “мне стало легче” type expressions.

Does консультация always mean a medical consultation, or can it be other types too?

Консультация is quite broad. It can be:

• Medical – with a doctor, psychotherapist, etc.
• Legal – with a lawyer.
• Financial – with a financial advisor.
• Academic – a consultation with a professor or tutor.
• Any professional advice session.

The sentence by itself doesn’t specify the field; context would tell you whether it’s a doctor, therapist, lawyer, etc.

How would the sentence change if the speaker is a woman?

Only the verb changes to the feminine past form:

• Masculine: Я почувствовал лёгкое облегчение.
• Feminine: Я почувствовала лёгкое облегчение.

Russian past-tense verbs agree with the gender of the subject:

• он почувствовал
• она почувствовала
• оно почувствовало (rare, mostly for things/animals in special contexts)
• они почувствовали (plural, no gender distinction)

How do you pronounce лёгкое облегчение, and what’s important about the letter ё?

Pronunciation (approximate):

• лёгкое – [LYOHK-ku-ye] (stress on лёг-)
• облегчение – [ablʲeg-CHYE-nee-ye] (stress on -чЕ-)

Key points:

• ё is always stressed and pronounced “yo”: лёгкое (not лЕгкое).
• In many texts, ё is written simply as е, so you might see легкое облегчение, but it’s still pronounced with “yo”.
• The softness of consonants is important:
  • лёг- has a soft л.
  • -чение has soft ч and н.

So even if you see легкое in print, you should pronounce it as лёгкое.