Questions & Answers about Спустя год наш сыр созрел.
Since после (after) takes the Genitive case, why doesn't год change to года after спустя?
Unlike после, the preposition спустя requires the Accusative case. Because год (year) is a masculine inanimate noun, its Accusative form is identical to its Nominative form, so it stays год. If you used a feminine noun, you would clearly see the case change, for example: спустя неделю (after a week).
Could I say через год instead of спустя год in this sentence?
Yes, you could, but there is a nuance. Спустя specifically emphasizes that a certain amount of time has elapsed or passed, often looking back from a later point in a narrative ('a year later'). Через is more neutral and is heavily used to project into the future ('in a year'), though it works in the past too. Спустя gives this sentence a slightly more literary or storytelling feel.
I sometimes see the time word placed before спустя. Is год спустя correct too?
Yes! Спустя is unique among Russian prepositions because it can also act as a postposition, meaning it can come directly after the noun it modifies. Год спустя and спустя год mean the exact same thing, and both are very common in Russian.
What is the imperfective counterpart to созрел, and why use the perfective here?