Шёлк выглядит красиво, но в дороге он мнётся сильнее, чем хлопок.

Russian has no articles. So nouns like шёлк and хлопок can mean silk / the silk / a silk depending on context.

In this sentence, the meaning is general: it is talking about silk and cotton as materials in general, not one specific piece of silk or cotton.

Because шёлк is a masculine singular noun in Russian.

That means:

• the pronoun is он
• the verbs are in 3rd person singular: выглядит, мнётся

This is grammatical gender, not biological sex. Materials and objects still have masculine, feminine, or neuter gender in Russian.

After выглядеть, Russian very often uses an adverb, especially when talking about overall appearance:

• выглядеть красиво = to look beautiful
• выглядеть хорошо = to look good
• выглядеть плохо = to look bad
• выглядеть странно = to look strange

So красиво is very natural here.

You can also use an adjective with выглядеть, but then the structure changes:

• выглядит красивым

That uses the instrumental case and has a slightly different feel. For a learner, выглядит красиво is the easiest and most natural pattern to recognize.

В дороге means something like:

• while traveling
• on the road
• in transit

Here дороге is in the prepositional singular of дорога.

Why? Because в plus the prepositional case is often used for location or situation, and here it is part of a common expression meaning during travel, not literal movement into a road.

So:

• в дороге = during the trip / while on the road

This is a very useful distinction.

• в дороге = while traveling, in transit
• на дороге = on the road physically, on the surface of the road, or out on the roadway

So in this sentence, в дороге is correct because the idea is that silk wrinkles more when you travel with it, not that it wrinkles more while lying physically on a road.

Yes, it could be omitted:

• Шёлк выглядит красиво, но в дороге мнётся сильнее, чем хлопок.

That is understandable and natural.

But using он makes the second clause a little clearer and more balanced:

• Шёлк выглядит красиво, но в дороге он мнётся сильнее, чем хлопок.

Russian does allow subject pronouns to be omitted in some contexts, but it does not omit them as freely as some languages do. Here он helps keep the subject clear after но.

Мнётся comes from the verb мяться, which means:

• to get wrinkled
• to crease
• to crumple easily

So он мнётся means it wrinkles / it gets creased.

This is a very common verb for fabrics and clothes.

Related forms:

• мять = to crumple something, to wrinkle something
• мяться = to get crumpled / to wrinkle

The -ся ending often makes a verb reflexive or gives it a middle/passive-like meaning.

Compare:

• мять = to wrinkle or crumple something
• мяться = to wrinkle, to get wrinkled

So шёлк мнётся does not mean silk is literally doing the action to itself on purpose. It means silk is a material that wrinkles easily or tends to get creased.

This is a very common pattern in Russian:

• открывать → открываться
• ломать → ломаться
• мять → мяться

Russian uses the present tense for general facts, habits, and typical properties, just as English does.

So:

• Шёлк выглядит красиво = silk looks beautiful
• он мнётся сильнее = it wrinkles more

This is not about one single moment only. It describes what is generally true about silk.

Сильнее is the comparative form of сильный. Literally it often means stronger, but with verbs it can also mean:

• more strongly
• more severely
• more intensely

So мнётся сильнее means something like:

• wrinkles more
• wrinkles more severely
• creases more easily / more noticeably

Then чем introduces what it is compared to:

• сильнее, чем хлопок = more than cotton

So the pattern is:

• comparative + чем + thing compared with

After чем, Russian usually keeps the noun in the case it would have in a full clause.

The implied full comparison is something like:

• ...чем хлопок мнётся

In that full version, хлопок is the subject, so it stays in the nominative:

• хлопок

There is another comparison pattern without чем where the genitive is common:

• Шёлк мнётся сильнее хлопка.

So both are possible, but they are different structures:

• сильнее, чем хлопок
• сильнее хлопка

Yes, absolutely.

• мнётся больше
• мнётся сильнее

Both are natural.

Very roughly:

• больше is often the most straightforward everyday way to say more
• сильнее can sound a bit more like more strongly / more severely

In real usage, both are understandable and idiomatic.

Шёлк is pronounced with a clear yo sound in ё. Roughly: shyolk or sholk.

A few useful points:

• ё is always stressed
• in many printed texts, ё is often written as е
• so you may see шелк, but it is still pronounced шёлк

The same is true for мнётся:

• it may be written мнется
• but it is pronounced мнётся

For learners, restoring ё mentally is very important for both pronunciation and sometimes meaning.