Breakdown of Хотя брат и сестра очень разные, они одинаково любят музыку.
Questions & Answers about Хотя брат и сестра очень разные, они одинаково любят музыку.
In Russian, the verb “to be” (быть) in the present tense is normally left out in such sentences.
- English: “The brother and sister are very different.”
- Russian literally: “The brother and sister very different.”
So:
- ✅ Брат и сестра очень разные.
- ❌ Брат и сестра есть очень разные. (sounds wrong in modern Russian)
You only use есть in special emphatic or contrastive contexts (and even there it’s not common with adjectives like this), for example:
- Проблема есть. – “There is a problem.”
In ordinary present‑tense sentences with “is/are” + adjective or noun, Russian simply omits the verb.
The subject of the clause is «брат и сестра» (“brother and sister”), which together form a plural subject. In Russian, adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in:
- gender
- number
- case
Because we have two people (brother + sister), the subject is grammatically plural, so the adjective must be plural:
- Брат и сестра очень разные. – “The brother and sister are very different.”
Compare:
- Брат очень разный. – wrong here, because it would describe only the brother.
- Сестра очень разная. – would describe only the sister.
- Брат и сестра очень разные. – correctly describes them together as being different from each other (their characters, tastes, etc.).
The adjective разный has two main uses:
“different (from each other)”
That is the meaning here:- Брат и сестра очень разные.
“The brother and sister are very different (from each other).”
- Брат и сестра очень разные.
“various, different kinds of”
Example:- Я люблю разные книги. – “I like different kinds of books / all sorts of books.”
It is not “other” in the sense of “another one instead of this one” – that meaning is usually expressed by другой:
- Я хочу другую книгу. – “I want another / a different book (not this one).”
So in your sentence «очень разные» means their personalities, tastes, character, etc. are very different from each other.
Хотя means “although / even though” and introduces a concessive clause (a clause showing contrast).
Structure in your sentence:
- Хотя брат и сестра очень разные,
Although the brother and sister are very different, - они одинаково любят музыку.
they equally love music.
Key points about хотя:
- It introduces a subordinate clause that usually has a comma before the main clause.
- You can change the order of the clauses:
- Хотя брат и сестра очень разные, они одинаково любят музыку.
- Они одинаково любят музыку, хотя брат и сестра очень разные.
Both are correct. The choice is stylistic: starting with хотя emphasizes the contrast first.
Yes, you can say that, and it will be correct:
- Несмотря на то, что брат и сестра очень разные, они одинаково любят музыку.
Difference in feel:
- Хотя – short, neutral, very common.
- Несмотря на то, что – a bit longer and more formal, slightly heavier style.
Meaning-wise they are very close here: both introduce a concessive idea (“even though…” / “despite the fact that…”).
So your original sentence with хотя is natural and slightly lighter in style.
Одинаково is an adverb, and it modifies the verb любят (“love”).
- они одинаково любят музыку
literally: “they equally love music / they love music in the same way.”
Compare:
- одинаковый – adjective, masc. sg. (e.g. одинаковый размер – “same size”)
- одинаковая – adjective, fem. sg.
- одинаковые – adjective, plural.
- одинаково – adverb (“equally, in the same way”).
After a verb (“love”), you normally need an adverb, not an adjective:
- ✅ Они одинаково любят музыку. – They love music equally.
- 🚫 Они одинаковые любят музыку. – incorrect; adjective cannot modify the verb like this.
So одинаково tells us how they love music – equally.
Yes, that is also correct:
- Они одинаково любят музыку.
- Они любят музыку одинаково.
Both mean “They love music equally.”
Nuance:
- Они одинаково любят музыку.
Slightly more focus on their attitude to music in general being the same. - Они любят музыку одинаково.
Slightly stronger emphasis on the manner/degree of loving being equal.
In everyday speech, the difference is very small, and both versions sound natural.
The verb любить (“to love; to like”) is transitive and normally takes a direct object in the accusative case.
Pattern:
- кого? что? (whom? what?) – accusative.
So:
- любят музыку – “(they) love music”
музыку = accusative singular of музыка.
Compare:
- Я люблю музыку. – I love music.
- Она любит чай. – She likes tea.
- Мы любим спорт. – We like sport.
If you said музыка in the nominative, it would change the structure and wouldn’t fit after любят as a direct object.
In Russian, subject pronouns can be omitted, but not as freely as in Spanish/Italian, and not usually across a clause boundary like this.
Your version:
- Хотя брат и сестра очень разные, одинаково любят музыку.
is grammatically possible, but it sounds unfinished or slightly awkward in standard written Russian. After a comma and a new clause, Russian normally expects an explicit subject, especially when it is a pronoun referring back to a previous noun phrase.
Much more natural:
- Хотя брат и сестра очень разные, они одинаково любят музыку.
You can safely remember:
→ In most neutral sentences with “they”, you keep «они».
In this sentence, «одинаково любят музыку» means they love music to the same degree / equally strongly.
- Focus: how much or in what way they love music.
If you wanted to say they love the same pieces / the same kind of music, you would use a different construction, for example:
- Они любят одну и ту же музыку. – They love the same music.
- Им нравится одна и та же музыка.
So:
- одинаково любят музыку → equal intensity/attitude toward music.
- любят одну и ту же музыку → they like the same musical works / genres, not just equally strongly.