Хотя на столе были и манго, и груша, сын взял только банан.

Хотя means although / even though. It introduces a subordinate clause that gives a contrast:

• Хотя на столе были и манго, и груша = Although there were mango(es) and a pear on the table
• сын взял только банан = the son took only a banana

So the whole sentence has the pattern:

• Although X, Y

In Russian, a clause with хотя is usually separated by a comma from the main clause.

The comma separates the хотя clause from the main clause.

Structure:

• Хотя на столе были и манго, и груша, = subordinate clause
• сын взял только банан. = main clause

This is very normal Russian punctuation. If a clause begins with хотя, you should usually expect a comma before the main clause.

Because на столе expresses location: on the table.

Russian uses different cases depending on whether you mean:

• where something is → на столе = on the table
• where something is going → на стол = onto the table

So here:

• на столе были... = there were ... on the table

If someone put something onto the table, then you would use на стол.

Были is the past plural form of быть. It is plural because the sentence refers to more than one item being on the table:

• манго
• груша

Together they form a plural idea: there were mango(es) and a pear.

Compare:

• На столе была груша. = There was a pear on the table.
• На столе были манго и груша. = There were mangoes and a pear on the table.

This is a very common Russian pattern:

• и X, и Y = both X and Y

So:

• и манго, и груша = both mango(es) and a pear

This repeated и adds emphasis and clearly shows that both things were present. Russian often uses this correlative structure where English might simply say mangoes and a pear or both mangoes and a pear.

Because груша is part of the subject of the clause:

• на столе были и манго, и груша

The things that were on the table are манго and груша, so they appear in the nominative case.

Here груша is not the object of an action; it is one of the things being described as present.

Манго is one of those Russian nouns that are often indeclinable, meaning the form stays the same in different cases.

So you may see:

• манго
• нет манго
• вижу манго

with no ending change.

This is common with some borrowed words in Russian. Also, манго can refer to one mango or multiple mangoes depending on context.

In this sentence, because of были and the pairing with груша, the meaning is understood as something like mango(es) rather than definitely one mango.

Взял is the past tense of взять = to take.

It tells us several things:

• past tense: the action happened in the past
• masculine singular: because the subject is сын (son), which is masculine singular
• perfective aspect: взять means a completed act of taking

So сын взял means the son took.

Compare:

• брал = was taking / used to take / took repeatedly
• взял = took, completed the action

Here the perfective взял fits well because he made one choice and took one item.

It is accusative. The reason it looks unchanged is that банан is an inanimate masculine noun, and for inanimate masculine nouns, the accusative singular is usually the same as the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: банан
• accusative: банан

That is why:

• взял банан = took a banana

Compare with an animate masculine noun:

• вижу брата = I see my brother

There the accusative changes form because the noun is animate.

Только means only, and here it modifies банан:

• только банан = only a banana

Placing только directly before the word it emphasizes is very common in Russian. So the sentence highlights that, despite the other fruit being available, the son took only the banana.

Word order in Russian is flexible, but this placement is the most straightforward and natural here.

Yes, Russian word order is flexible, but changing it changes the emphasis.

The given sentence:

• Хотя на столе были и манго, и груша, сын взял только банан.

is neutral and natural.

You could also hear variations such as:

• Хотя на столе были и манго, и груша, только банан взял сын.

This sounds more marked and emphasizes only the banana or creates a more literary style.

So the original version is probably the best choice for normal speech and writing.

Груша can mean:

• pear (the fruit)
• pear tree
• in some contexts, a punching bag

In this sentence, because it appears together with манго and банан on a table, it clearly means pear as a fruit.

Russian often relies on context like this.

Russian has no articles, so nouns appear without words like a, an, or the.

That means:

• сын can mean the son or a son, depending on context
• банан can mean a banana or the banana

You understand definiteness from context, word order, and the situation, not from articles.

So in translation, English has to choose, but Russian does not mark that directly.

Yes. Были simply means were, describing existence or presence.

But Russian could also use a more specific verb, for example:

• Хотя на столе лежали и манго, и груша...
  = Although mango(es) and a pear were lying on the table...

That sounds a bit more concrete, because fruit literally lies on a table.

Still, были is completely normal and natural if the speaker just wants to say that the fruit was there.