Breakdown of Ему было двадцать лет, когда он решил переехать в столицу.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
в
in / to (direction)
год
year
быть
to be
когда
when
столица
capital city
решить
to decide (perfective)
двадцать
twenty
переехать
to move
Questions & Answers about Ему было двадцать лет, когда он решил переехать в столицу.
Why does the sentence use Ему было instead of Он был?
To express age in Russian, we use the Dative case for the person. It literally translates to 'To him it was twenty years.' This is why we use Ему (the Dative form of он) and the neuter past tense verb было.
Why do we use лет for 'years' here instead of года?
The word for 'years' changes based on the number before it. After numbers ending in 5 through 9, 0, and 11 through 19, you must use the genitive plural лет. Since двадцать (20) ends in a 0, it takes лет.
What does the prefix пере- mean in the verb переехать?
The base verb ехать means to travel by vehicle. The prefix пере- adds the meaning of crossing over or changing locations. Put together, переехать is the standard verb for moving your residence to a new city or apartment.
Why is столица (capital) written as в столицу here?
Because the verb переехать shows motion toward a destination, we need to use the preposition в plus the Accusative case to show direction. If the sentence was about him already living there with no motion involved, it would use the Prepositional case (в столице).
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