Learn Hardcore Russian: Мой племянник почему‑то не любит суп, зато обожает чай. - For some reason my nephew doesn’t like soup, but he adores tea.

Мой племянник… = My nephew…
You are introducing him as a known person and making him the topic/subject of the sentence. This is the most natural way when you want to talk about what this particular nephew does or likes.
У меня есть племянник = I have a nephew (I possess a nephew).
This construction is used to say that such a person exists in your life, not to describe his habits. You’d say this when introducing the fact that you have a nephew at all, not when continuing with “…doesn’t like soup, but loves tea”.

So for this sentence, where we are describing his preferences, Мой племянник is the natural choice.

What case is племянник in, and why is it мой племянник, not моего племянника?

Племянник is in the nominative case, because it is the subject of the sentence (the one doing the “not liking” and “adoring”).

In Russian, adjectives and possessive pronouns agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

племянник – masculine, singular, nominative
The matching form of мой in masculine singular nominative is also мой.

You’d see моего племянника when the word is in a different case, e.g.:

Я люблю моего племянника. – I love my nephew. (accusative)
У моего племянника есть кошка. – My nephew has a cat. (genitive)

Here, as subject, it stays nominative: мой племянник.

What exactly does почему‑то mean, and how is it different from just почему?

почему = why? – a direct question word asking for a reason.
- Почему он не любит суп? – Why doesn’t he like soup?
почему‑то = for some reason, for some unknown reason.
It implies that the speaker doesn’t know or doesn’t want to specify the reason.

In this sentence, почему‑то softens the statement:

Мой племянник не любит суп. – My nephew doesn’t like soup. (a plain fact)
Мой племянник почему‑то не любит суп. – For some reason, my nephew doesn’t like soup. (I find it a bit strange / unexplained).

So почему‑то is not asking “why?”; it’s stating that the reason is unknown or mysterious to the speaker.

Why is there a hyphen in почему‑то? Is it one word or two?

In Russian, the suffix ‑то is attached with a hyphen to make indefinite pronouns and adverbs:

кто‑то – someone
где‑то – somewhere
когда‑то – sometime
почему‑то – for some (unknown) reason

So почему‑то is written as one unit with a hyphen, not as two separate words. The hyphen is just an orthographic rule showing that ‑то is a clitic-like suffix meaning “some, some kind of, for some reason”.

Could the word order of почему‑то change? For example, can you say Мой племянник суп почему‑то не любит?

Yes, Russian word order is relatively flexible, and почему‑то can move around:

Мой племянник почему‑то не любит суп. – neutral, very natural.
Мой племянник суп почему‑то не любит. – also possible; it slightly emphasizes суп (“Soup, for some reason, my nephew doesn’t like”).
Мой племянник почему‑то суп не любит. – possible in speech; a bit more “broken up”, with focus on his attitude to soup.

However, something like:

✗ Мой племянник не любит почему‑то суп.

is much less natural: adverbs like почему‑то don’t usually go after the verb like that.

The original version Мой племянник почему‑то не любит суп is the most neutral and standard.

Why is it не любит суп, and not something like не суп любит?

не любит суп = doesn’t like soup (he has a negative attitude toward soup). The negation is attached to the verb: he does not-like soup.
не суп любит, with stress on суп, would mean “it’s not soup that he likes (but something else)`.”
Here, you are negating the object, not the liking itself.

In this sentence, we want to say he doesn’t like soup, not to contrast soup with some other food. So the normal, unmarked pattern is:

не + verb + object → не любит суп

Why are суп and чай in this form and not супа / чая?

Here суп and чай are direct objects of the verbs любит and обожает, so they are in the accusative case.

For masculine inanimate nouns like суп and чай, the accusative form is the same as the nominative:

Nominative: суп, чай
Accusative: суп, чай

So in this sentence:

не любит суп – doesn’t like soup
обожает чай – adores tea

Why not супа / чая? Those are genitive forms. After любить/обожать, the normal choice for a general like/dislike is accusative. Genitive can sometimes appear with negation (не любит супа) but it’s more stylistic and less common; everyday speech here uses суп and чай in accusative.

What is the difference between любит and обожает? Could we swap them?

любить – to like, to love
Neutral, can mean anything from “quite likes” to “is fond of”.
обожать – to adore, to be crazy about
Stronger, more emotional: it suggests very strong liking.

The contrast in the sentence is:

не любит суп – doesn’t (even) like soup
зато обожает чай – but (on the other hand) absolutely loves tea

You could swap them grammatically:

Мой племянник почему‑то не обожает суп, зато любит чай.

But that changes the meaning: now soup is just “not adored” (maybe he still likes it a bit), and tea is liked, but not necessarily adored. The original shows a stronger contrast in preference.

What does зато mean here, and how is it different from но? Could we say …не любит суп, но обожает чай?

но = but – a simple contrast:
- Он не любит суп, но обожает чай. – He doesn’t like soup, but he loves tea.
зато = but (on the other hand / instead / at least).
It often suggests a kind of compensation: a negative fact is “balanced” by a positive one.

So:

Мой племянник почему‑то не любит суп, зато обожает чай.
= For some reason my nephew doesn’t like soup, but (on the other hand) he adores tea.

You can replace зато with но and the sentence will still be correct and natural, but you’ll slightly lose that “compensating” flavor. зато feels a bit more expressive: Okay, soup is a problem, but at least he adores tea.

Why is there a comma before зато?

In Russian, зато is a coordinating conjunction (like а, но). It links two independent clauses:

Мой племянник почему‑то не любит суп
(он) зато обожает чай

According to Russian punctuation rules, when you join two independent clauses with conjunctions like а, но, зато, you put a comma before the conjunction:

…, зато …
…, но …
…, а …

So the comma is required: не любит суп, зато обожает чай.

What tense/aspect is не любит / обожает, and how does it relate to English “likes / is liking”?

Both любить and обожать are imperfective verbs in the present tense here.

In Russian, present tense imperfective is used for:

regular habits
general preferences
timeless facts

So не любит суп, обожает чай is about his general taste, not about what he is doing right now.

English distinguishes between:

He likes / loves / adores tea. (present simple, general fact)
He is liking / is loving (normally not used with stative verbs like “like” and “love”).

Russian doesn’t have a separate continuous form here; любит / обожает in the present naturally expresses the habitual/general meaning.

Could we leave out почему‑то and just say Мой племянник не любит суп, зато обожает чай? How would that change the meaning?

Yes, you can omit почему‑то, and the sentence will still be fully correct:

Мой племянник не любит суп, зато обожает чай.

The difference is in nuance:

With почему‑то: you hint that his dislike is unexpected, strange, or unexplained to you.
Without почему‑то: you just state it as a plain fact, without any comment on whether it’s surprising.

So почему‑то adds the speaker’s attitude: “For some reason (I don’t get why), my nephew doesn’t like soup…”

How is this sentence pronounced? Where is the stress in the main words?

Stress marks (´) show the stressed syllable:

Мо́й – stress on мой.
племя́нник – plem‑YÁN‑nik (stress on я́н).
почему́‑то – po‑che‑MÚ‑to (stress on му́).
лю́бит – LYÚ‑bit (stress on лю́).
суп – one syllable, stress on the only vowel.
зато́ – za‑TÓ (stress on то́).
обожа́ет – o‑bo‑ZHÁ‑yet (stress on жа́).
чай – one syllable, stress on the only vowel.

Putting the stress correctly is important in Russian because it can change the quality of vowels, and sometimes even the meaning of words.