Breakdown of Я посоветовал этот фильм моему старому другу, потому что он был очень интересный.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
я
I
друг
friend
интересный
interesting
старый
old
мой
my (мой, моя, моё) / mine
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
фильм
movie
очень
very
потому что
because
быть
to be
посоветовать
to advise (perfective)
Questions & Answers about Я посоветовал этот фильм моему старому другу, потому что он был очень интересный.
Why does the phrase "to my old friend" translate to моему старому другу here?
The verb посоветовал (recommended) requires the Dative case to show who receives the recommendation. The dictionary (Nominative) forms are мой старый друг. In the Dative case for masculine words, the possessive pronoun мой changes to моему, the adjective старый takes the -ому ending to become старому, and the noun друг adds an -у.
Wait, isn't этот фильм the direct object? Why didn't its endings change?
It actually is in the Accusative case, which marks the direct object! However, because фильм is a masculine inanimate noun (a non-living thing), its Accusative form looks exactly the same as its Nominative (dictionary) form. The demonstrative pronoun этот follows the same rule.
Why use the perfective verb посоветовал instead of советовал?
We use the perfective verb посоветовал because the recommendation was a single, completed action in the past with a specific result. If you wanted to say "I used to recommend" or "I was recommending," you would use the imperfective form советовал.
In English, we say "it was very interesting", but the Russian uses он. Why?
In Russian, pronouns must match the grammatical gender of the noun they replace. Он literally means "he", but here it translates to "it" because it refers back to фильм (film), which is a masculine noun.
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