Learn Hardcore Russian: Когда‑то у дяди не было бороды, но теперь я не могу представить его без неё. - Once my uncle didn’t have a beard, but now I can’t imagine him without it.

у дяди не было бороды literally = “at uncle there was no beard” → “my uncle didn’t have a beard”.
у requires the genitive case, so дядя (nom.) → дяди (gen.).
This у + genitive + есть/нет/было pattern is much more natural than using a verb like иметь (“to have”) for people and their physical characteristics.

So у дяди is the normal way to say “(my) uncle had / didn’t have …”.

Why is it не было бороды and not не была борода, since борода is feminine?

Here быть is used in the impersonal existential construction (“there was / there was not”), and in that pattern Russian normally uses the neuter form было, regardless of the noun’s gender.

У дяди не было бороды = “There was no beard at (my) uncle.”
The focus is on the non‑existence of the beard, not on a beard as a grammatical subject.
If you made борода the grammatical subject, you could say борода не была у дяди, but that sounds unusual and marked; speakers very strongly prefer the impersonal не было бороды here.

So не было is neutral existential “there was not”, and that overrides the noun’s gender.

Why is бороды used instead of борода?

Бороды is the genitive singular of борода (“beard”).

Two things trigger the genitive here:

The negative existential construction нет / не было / не будет requires the genitive of what is absent:
- нет бороды – there is no beard
- не было бороды – there was no beard
The preposition без later in the sentence also uses the genitive:
- без бороды – without a beard

So:

борода – nominative (subject form)
бороды – genitive (after нет / не было, без, etc.)

What is the exact meaning and use of когда‑то here?

Когда‑то means “once (in the past)”, “at some time in the past”, “there was a time when…”.

In this sentence it has a vague, non‑specific past meaning:

Когда‑то у дяди не было бороды ≈ “There was a time when my uncle didn’t have a beard.”

Compare:

раньше – “earlier / before (now)” (emphasizes contrast with the present)
- Раньше у дяди не было бороды.
однажды – “one day / once (on one particular occasion)”
- Однажды он сбрил бороду.
когда‑нибудь – “someday / ever (in the future or in general)”
- Ты когда‑нибудь отрастишь бороду?

Here когда‑то just sets a nonspecific former time.

Why is there a hyphen in когда‑то?

The hyphen shows that когда‑то is functioning as a single adverb (“once, some time ago”), not literally “when + that”.

когда‑то (hyphen) – fixed adverb, “once / at some time in the past”.
когда то (with a space) would be read as когда то = “when that…”, starting a clause, and is very unusual; normally you’d need more words.

So when you mean “once, sometime”, you must write it as one word with a hyphen: когда‑то.

Why is it я не могу представить, with представить (perfective), and not я не могу представлять?

Russian aspect works differently from English:

представить (perfective) = to imagine/form a single, complete mental picture.
представлять (imperfective) = to be in the process of imagining / to habitually imagine / to generally have an idea.

In я не могу представить его без неё, the speaker is talking about forming that image even once – “I can’t (even) form the idea of him without it.” That’s a single complete act, so perfective представить is natural.

Я не могу представлять его без неё would sound more like “I can’t keep imagining him without it (it’s unpleasant / forbidden / etc.)”, which is not the idea here.

Why is it его in представить его без неё, and not он?

Он is the nominative form (used for the subject), but here “him” is the object of представить, so Russian uses the accusative:

Nominative (subject): он – “he”
Accusative (direct object, masculine inanimate/animate): его – “him”

So:

Он не имел бороды. – He didn’t have a beard. (subject: он)
Я не могу представить его без бороды. – I can’t imagine him without a beard. (object: его)

Why do we say без неё (“without her/it”) instead of repeating бороды?

Неё is a personal pronoun in the genitive feminine singular, referring back to борода (feminine).

борода – feminine noun
без неё – “without it (her)”, where “it” = the beard.

You could say:

…не могу представить его без бороды.

That is perfectly correct and maybe even clearer for learners. Native speakers often use a pronoun instead of repeating the noun when the reference is obvious:

У дяди была шапка. Я никогда не видел его без неё.
“…I have never seen him without it (the hat).”

Why does без take неё / бороды in the genitive?

The preposition без (“without”) always governs the genitive case in Russian.

без + кого? / чего? (genitive)
- без неё – without her/it
- без бороды – without a beard
- без шапки – without a hat

So because без is used, она → её (gen.) and борода → бороды (gen.).

Is the word order но теперь я не могу представить его без неё fixed, or can it change?

The given order is natural, but Russian word order is quite flexible. You can move some parts for emphasis:

Но теперь я не могу представить его без неё. (neutral)
Но я теперь не могу представить его без неё. (slight emphasis on “now”)
Но теперь не могу я представить его без неё. (emphatic/poetic: stress on “cannot I imagine”)

What you usually don’t change is the grouping of verb + object:

не могу представить его is better kept together than, say, его не могу представить (which sounds more marked and emphatic).

Could you say the same thing using иметь, like Дядя не имел бороды?

You can grammatically say дядя не имел бороды, but it sounds bookish or old-fashioned in modern spoken Russian, especially for physical traits.

With body parts, clothing, and similar, Russians much prefer the у + genitive + есть / нет / было pattern:

У дяди не было бороды. – most natural.
Дядя не имел бороды. – understandable, but stylistically high/dated in everyday speech.

So for “X had / didn’t have a beard / glasses / a car”, learn and use у X (не) было Y.

What exactly does я не могу представить его без неё imply? Is it emotional or just factual?

Literally it means “I cannot imagine him without it”, but it usually carries an emotional / subjective nuance:

The person is so used to seeing the uncle with a beard that it’s hard to picture him otherwise.
It often suggests something like “it would be strange / unimaginable / wrong to see him without a beard”.

So the sentence as a whole is:

Когда‑то у дяди не было бороды, но теперь я не могу представить его без неё.
“There was a time when my uncle didn’t have a beard, but now I can’t imagine him without it.”
with a shade of “he and the beard now feel inseparable in my mind.”