Breakdown of Директор не хочет нанимать новых людей, хотя у нас много работы.
не
not
мы
we
новый
new
работа
work, job
много
a lot
хотеть
to want
люди
people
у
at, by
директор
director
хотя
although
нанимать
to hire (impf)
Questions & Answers about Директор не хочет нанимать новых людей, хотя у нас много работы.
Does хотя always need a comma before it in sentences like this?
Yes! In Russian, you must always put a comma between two clauses (parts of a sentence that have their own subject and verb). Since хотя (although) introduces a new clause here, it must have a comma before it.
Why is it новых людей instead of новые люди?
The phrase новых людей is the direct object of the verb нанимать (to hire), so it needs to be in the accusative case. Because people are living things (animate), the plural accusative case looks exactly like the plural genitive case.
Why does работа change to работы at the end of the sentence?
The word много (a lot or much) is a word of quantity, and it forces the noun that comes after it into the genitive case. For the feminine noun работа, the ending changes from -а to -ы.
The English translation says "we have", but where is the word for "we" or "have"?
Russian expresses possession differently. It uses у (by or at) followed by a pronoun in the genitive case, which is нас for "us". Literally, у нас много работы translates to "by us [there is] a lot of work".
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