Поколение моих родителей отличалось своими традициями.

My parents’ generation was distinguished by its own traditions.

Breakdown of Поколение моих родителей отличалось своими традициями.

• мой: my
• традиция: the tradition
• поколение: the generation
• родитель: the parent
• отличаться: to differ
• свой: its

Questions & Answers about Поколение моих родителей отличалось своими традициями.

What part of speech is поколение, and what are its gender and number?

поколение is a noun. It’s neuter gender and singular number. In this sentence it means “generation.”

Why is моих родителей in the genitive case?

The genitive case shows possession or belonging. Here поколение belongs to моих родителей, so родителей (parents) is genitive plural, and моих matches it in case, number, and gender. The phrase literally reads “the generation of my parents.”

Why does the verb appear as отличалось (past, singular neuter) even though родителей is plural?

Verbal agreement in Russian is with the grammatical subject, not with a genitive modifier. The subject is поколение (neuter singular), so the past-tense verb is отличалось (3rd person singular, neuter).

What kind of verb is отличалось, and how does отличаться work with cases?

отличаться is a reflexive (intransitive) verb meaning “to be distinguished” or “to differ.” It has two patterns:
• отличаться от + Genitive — “to differ from”
• отличаться + Instrumental — “to be distinguished by”
In our sentence it uses the second pattern: something is distinguished by its traditions.

Why is своими традициями in the instrumental plural?

With отличаться in the sense “to be distinguished by,” the distinguishing feature takes the instrumental case. традиции (traditions) is plural, so its instrumental form is традициями. The possessive свои refers back to the subject поколение, and in instrumental plural it becomes своими.

What exactly does свои refer to here? Could it be их or ихними instead?

свои is a reflexive possessive pronoun that always refers to the subject of the clause (here, поколение). It means “its own.” You cannot use их or ихними for that; those would refer to someone else’s traditions, not the subject’s.

Could you rephrase the sentence to compare two generations?

Yes. To say “The generation of my parents differed from the generation of their children,” you’d use the отличаться от + Genitive pattern:
Поколение моих родителей отличалось от поколения их детей.

Is it possible to omit моих родителей and still make sense?

Absolutely. If you simply want to say “The generation was distinguished by its traditions,” you can write:
Поколение отличалось своими традициями.