Learn Hardcore Russian: Он старается быстро выплатить кредит, хотя зарплата небольшая. - He is trying to pay off the loan quickly, although his salary is small.

The ending -ся (or -сь) is the reflexive/postfix marker in Russian. With стараться, it doesn’t mean “himself” literally; it just turns the verb into “to try / to make an effort”.

стараться = to try, to make an effort (imperfective)
он старается = he is trying / he tries / he makes an effort

So старается is 3rd person singular, present tense, reflexive:

infinitive: старать
- -ся → стараться
3rd sg.: старает
- -ся → старается

You generally can’t say он старает in modern Russian; the reflexive form стараться is the normal verb meaning “to try; to be making an effort”.

What is the difference between стараться and пытаться? Could I say Он пытается быстро выплатить кредит instead?

Both стараться and пытаться can be translated as to try, but they have different shades of meaning:

стараться = to make an effort, to do one’s best
- emphasizes diligence, effort, intention to do something well
пытаться = to attempt, to make an attempt
- more neutral, often used for a simple attempt, sometimes with a nuance of uncertainty or struggle

In your sentence:

Он старается быстро выплатить кредит
implies he is doing his best, working hard to pay off the loan quickly.
Он пытается быстро выплатить кредит
is also correct, but it may sound a bit more like he is attempting to pay it off quickly (perhaps it’s difficult, not sure if he’ll succeed).

Both are grammatically correct; стараться just better highlights ongoing effort and diligence.

Why is it быстро выплатить кредит and not something like выплатить кредит быстро? Where can the adverb быстро go?

Russian word order is flexible, and both are possible:

Он старается быстро выплатить кредит
Neutral and very natural. быстро is right before the infinitive выплатить, so it clearly modifies “pay off”.
Он старается выплатить кредит быстро
Also correct. Here быстро is after the object. This can sound slightly more “afterthought-like” or stylistically marked, but it’s still fine.

Other possible positions:

Он быстро старается выплатить кредит – now быстро primarily modifies старается (“he quickly tries / is quick to try”), which is a slightly different nuance.
Быстро он старается выплатить кредит – unusual in neutral speech; sounds more expressive or poetic.

In your original sentence, быстро placed right before выплатить is the clearest and most standard way to say he wants to pay off the loan quickly.

Why is it выплатить and not выплачивать? What’s the aspect difference here?

Russian verbs come in pairs of aspect: imperfective vs. perfective.

выплачивать – imperfective: to pay off (gradually, repeatedly, as a process)
выплатить – perfective: to pay off (completely, achieve the result)

In this sentence:

Он старается быстро выплатить кредит
means he is making an effort to reach the result: to have the loan fully paid off, and to do that quickly.

If you used выплачивать:

Он старается быстро выплачивать кредит
This would mean he tries to make the payments quickly / pay regularly and promptly, focusing more on the ongoing manner of payment rather than the final completion of the loan.

So выплатить is chosen because the goal is the completed result (“to get rid of the loan”), not just the process.

What case is кредит in, and how can I tell?

Кредит here is in the accusative case (direct object of the verb).

Verb: выплатить – “to pay off”
Question: pay off what? → кредит

For masculine inanimate nouns like кредит, the accusative form is identical to the nominative:

nominative: кредит
accusative: кредит

You know it’s accusative because it is the direct object (the thing being paid off), not because of any visible ending change.

Why is there no verb “to be” in хотя зарплата небольшая? Shouldn’t it be like “зарплата есть небольшая”?

In Russian, the present-tense form of “to be” (быть) is usually omitted in simple sentences:

Зарплата небольшая.
literally: “Salary small.” → “The salary is small.”

Saying зарплата есть небольшая is grammatically possible but sounds unusual or emphatic in modern standard speech. The normal, neutral form is:

Зарплата небольшая. (no есть)

So in хотя зарплата небольшая, the verb “is” is understood but not pronounced or written. This is standard Russian structure.

Why is it зарплата небольшая and not зарплата маленькая or зарплата низкая? What’s the nuance of небольшая?

All three can be used about salary, but they have slightly different nuances:

небольшая зарплата
- literally: “not big salary”
- sounds a bit more neutral or softened, less blunt. Very common in speech when you want to say it’s not large without sounding too harsh.
маленькая зарплата
- literally: “small salary”
- more direct and sometimes more emotionally negative: the salary is plainly small.
низкая зарплата
- literally: “low salary”
- more formal/“economic” style; typical in discussions of wages, statistics, etc.

In this context, зарплата небольшая suggests it’s modest, on the small side, but in a relatively neutral, non-dramatic way.

What case and gender is зарплата, and how does it agree with небольшая?

зарплата is:

gender: feminine
number: singular
case: nominative (subject of the clause)

That’s why the adjective небольшая is also:

feminine
singular
nominative

Agreement:

noun: зарплат-а (fem., nom. sg.)
adjective: небольш-а-я (fem., nom. sg.)

So зарплата небольшая is a subject + predicate adjective construction (“the salary is small/not big”), with full gender/number/case agreement between noun and adjective.

How does хотя work here? Could I move the хотя-clause to the beginning of the sentence?

Хотя is a conjunction meaning “although / even though”. It introduces a concessive clause—something that contrasts with the main statement.

Structure in your sentence:

main clause: Он старается быстро выплатить кредит
concessive clause: хотя зарплата небольшая

You can absolutely put the хотя-clause first:

Хотя зарплата небольшая, он старается быстро выплатить кредит.

Both orders are common and correct:

Он старается быстро выплатить кредит, хотя зарплата небольшая.
Хотя зарплата небольшая, он старается быстро выплатить кредит.

The meaning is the same; moving хотя to the start just shifts the emphasis slightly to the contrasting condition right away.

What exactly does кредит mean here? Is it “credit card”, “loan”, or something else?

In Russian, кредит generally means a loan from a bank or another financial institution, especially a consumer loan (for a car, phone, furniture, etc.) or a mortgage in casual speech.

So:

выплатить кредит = to pay off a loan (completely)

It does not specifically mean “credit card” (that would be кредитная карта) and not “credit score” either. It’s the debt/loan itself that he’s paying back.

What tense is старается, and how should I think about its English equivalent?

Старается is in the present tense, 3rd person singular, imperfective aspect.

Depending on context, Russian present imperfective can correspond to several English forms:

“he tries” (simple present)
“he is trying” (present continuous)
“he makes an effort” / “he is making an effort”

Here, a natural English interpretation is:

“He is trying to pay off the loan quickly, although his salary is small.” or
“He tries to pay off the loan quickly, although his salary is small.”

Both capture the ongoing, habitual effort expressed by старается.