Вчера мы начали переезд и быстро упаковали вещи в большую коробку.

Yesterday we started moving and quickly packed our things into a big box.

Breakdown of Вчера мы начали переезд и быстро упаковали вещи в большую коробку.

• большой: big
• вчера: yesterday
• и: and
• мы: we
• быстро: quickly
• переезд: the move
• вещь: the thing
• в: into
• начать: to start
• коробка: the box
• упаковать: to pack

Questions & Answers about Вчера мы начали переезд и быстро упаковали вещи в большую коробку.

Why is вчера at the beginning? Is that the “normal” word order?

Putting a time word like вчера (yesterday) at the start is very common in Russian. It sets the scene first.
Other word orders are possible, with slightly different emphasis, e.g. Мы вчера начали переезд… (more focus on мы) or Мы начали переезд вчера… (more contrast on when).

Do we need to say мы? Could it be omitted?

Often мы can be omitted because the verb ending already shows the subject: начали, упаковали = we (plural past).
So Вчера начали переезд… can work in context. Keeping мы makes it explicit or slightly emphatic (e.g., contrasting we with someone else).

Why is it начали (past plural) and not something like a present form?

Russian past tense agrees in number (and in gender only in the singular).

• мы начали = we started (plural past → -ли)
  If it were singular:
• я начал (male speaker) / я начала (female speaker)

What does начали переезд mean grammatically—why a noun after начали?

Here переезд is a noun meaning a move / relocation process. The pattern is начать + noun (Accusative) = to start (something):

• начать ремонт (start a renovation)
• начать переезд (start the move)

A very common alternative is начать + infinitive:

• Вчера мы начали переезжать = Yesterday we started moving (focuses more on the action/process).

Why are both verbs perfective (начали, упаковали)?

• начать is typically perfective and marks the beginning of an action.
• упаковали (perfective) implies the packing is viewed as completed in that narrative step: we packed (and got it done).

If you want “were packing” / process background, you’d often use imperfective:

• быстро упаковывали вещи = were quickly packing things (focus on the process, not completion).

What case is переезд in after начали?

It’s Accusative: начали что? переезд.
For inanimate masculine nouns like переезд, the accusative form is the same as the nominative: переезд.

Why is it упаковали вещи—what case is вещи?

вещи is Accusative plural because it’s the direct object: упаковали что? вещи (packed what? things).
Conveniently, вещи looks the same in nominative plural and accusative plural for this noun.

Why is it в большую коробку and not в большой коробке?

Because в + Accusative indicates movement into something (destination):

• в коробку = into the box

в + Prepositional indicates location inside (no movement):

• в коробке = in the box

So упаковали вещи в большую коробку = packed the things into a big box.

Why is the adjective большую and not большая / большой?

Adjectives agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.
коробку is feminine singular accusative, so:

• большая (Nom. fem. sg.) → большую (Acc. fem. sg.)
  Compare:
• большая коробка (a big box — subject)
• вижу большую коробку (I see a big box — object)

Where does быстро go? Can I move it around?

быстро modifies упаковали and is placed right before it here: и быстро упаковали….
You can move it for nuance/emphasis, for example:

• и упаковали вещи быстро (emphasizes how they packed)
• быстро мы упаковали вещи… (more contrastive/emphatic, more stylistic)

Do we need a comma before и?

No comma is needed here because it’s a simple compound predicate with one subject (мы) and two past-tense verbs: начали and упаковали, joined by и.

Any key stress/pronunciation points in this sentence?

Common stresses (one standard pattern):

• вче́ра
• мы́
• нача́ли
• пере́езд
• бы́стро
• упакова́ли
• ве́щи
• в
• большу́ю
• коро́бку