Его гнев быстро прошёл.

Here его means his.

That can be confusing because его can also mean him, depending on the sentence. Russian has several forms that look the same but do different jobs.

In Его гнев быстро прошёл, его is a possessive word:

• его гнев = his anger

A useful point: Russian его for his does not change by gender, number, or case of the noun it goes with:

• его брат = his brother
• его сестра = his sister
• его друзья = his friends

So here, even though гнев is masculine singular, его stays его.

Гнев is in the nominative case because it is the subject of the sentence.

The structure is:

• Его гнев = his anger
• быстро прошёл = passed quickly / quickly went away

So the sentence is literally something like:

• His anger quickly passed

Since гнев is the thing doing the action grammatically, it is nominative.

Literally, прошёл comes from пройти, which often means to pass, to go by, or to go through.

But in this sentence it has an idiomatic meaning:

• гнев прошёл = the anger passed / the anger went away

Russian often uses verbs of movement metaphorically like this. With feelings or states, пройти can mean:

• to pass
• to subside
• to go away
• to wear off

So Его гнев быстро прошёл means that his anger did not last long.

Because прошёл is perfective, and the sentence describes a completed event.

Compare:

• прошёл (perfective past) = passed, went away, with focus on the result
• проходил (imperfective past) = was passing, used to pass, or describes the process/background

In this sentence, the idea is:

• his anger came to an end
• it passed quickly

So perfective прошёл is the natural choice.

If you said Его гнев быстро проходил, it would sound less natural in most contexts unless you were emphasizing a repeated tendency or the process itself.

In the past tense, Russian verbs agree in gender and number with the subject.

The subject here is гнев, which is:

• masculine
• singular

So the verb is:

• прошёл = masculine singular past

Compare:

• Гнев прошёл = the anger passed
• Злость прошла = the anger/irritation passed (злость is feminine)
• Чувства прошли = the feelings passed (plural)

So the ending tells you about the grammatical gender/number of the subject.

Yes, it is helpful and important for pronunciation.

Прошёл is pronounced with stress on -шёл:

• прошёл

The letter ё always indicates a stressed yo/o sound. In many printed texts, Russian writers replace ё with е, so you may also see:

• прошел

But the correct pronunciation is still прошёл.

This matters because stress in Russian is unpredictable, so ё gives you a strong clue.

A natural stress pattern is:

• его́ гнев бы́стро прошёл

Notes:

• его́ — stress on the last syllable
• гнев — one syllable
• бы́стро — stress on the first syllable
• прошёл — stress on the last syllable

Rough pronunciation:

• yi-VO gnyef BYS-tra pra-SHYOL

The exact sounds are not identical to English, but that approximation can help at first.

Гнев means anger, but it sounds a bit stronger, weightier, and sometimes more literary or elevated than злость.

Very roughly:

• гнев = anger, wrath
• злость = anger, irritation, spite; often more everyday

Examples:

• Его гнев быстро прошёл. = His anger quickly passed.
• Я чувствую злость. = I feel anger / irritation.

So гнев is absolutely correct and natural, but it may sound a bit more forceful or formal than some everyday alternatives.

Yes. Russian word order is flexible, though different orders shift the emphasis.

The neutral order here is:

• Его гнев быстро прошёл.

Other possible orders:

• Быстро прошёл его гнев.
• Его гнев прошёл быстро.

These all mean basically the same thing, but the focus changes:

• Его гнев быстро прошёл = neutral
• Быстро прошёл его гнев = stronger emphasis on quickly
• Его гнев прошёл быстро = also natural, with quickly placed at the end for emphasis

English relies more on fixed word order; Russian uses word order more for information structure and emphasis.

Yes, you could, but it is not exactly the same in tone.

• Его гнев быстро прошёл sounds a bit stronger or more elevated.
• Его злость быстро прошла sounds more everyday and conversational.

Also notice the grammar change:

• гнев is masculine, so прошёл
• злость is feminine, so прошла

So both are grammatical, but the noun choice changes both the nuance and the verb form.

Russian has no words equivalent to a and the as regular articles.

So:

• гнев can mean anger, the anger, or sometimes an anger, depending on context

In this sentence, English naturally uses:

• His anger quickly passed

Russian leaves that to context and does not need an article. This is completely normal in Russian.