Word
У кандидата есть хорошие навыки, хотя ему двадцать лет.
Meaning
The candidate has good skills, although he is twenty years old.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of У кандидата есть хорошие навыки, хотя ему двадцать лет.
хороший
good
у
at, by
есть
is, there is, to have
год
year
Questions & Answers about У кандидата есть хорошие навыки, хотя ему двадцать лет.
How does хотя work here, and do we always need a comma before it?
Хотя introduces a concessive clause, meaning it shows a contrast or an unexpected result (like having good skills despite being young). In Russian, you must always put a comma before хотя when it connects two parts of a sentence.
Why does the sentence use У кандидата есть instead of a verb for "to have"?
Russian typically expresses possession using the formula У + [Genitive case] + есть. So instead of using a direct verb like "has," you literally say "At the candidate there are" good skills. Кандидата is the Genitive form of the noun кандидат.
Why does the second part say ему (to him) instead of он (he)?
When expressing age in Russian, the person is put in the Dative case. You don't say "he is 20," you literally say "to him are 20 years." Ему is the Dative form of the pronoun он.
Why do we use лет for "years" instead of a form of the word год?
When counting years, Russian uses a specific pattern. Numbers ending in 1 take год, numbers ending in 2, 3, or 4 take года, and numbers ending in 5-9 and 0 (like двадцать) take лет. Interestingly, лет is actually the Genitive plural form of the word for "summer"!