Breakdown of В юности он много читал.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
много
a lot
читать
to read
юность
youth (the time of life)
Questions & Answers about В юности он много читал.
We are learning to use the Dative case and 'было' for past ages. Why aren't they used in this sentence?
The structure with the Dative case and было (like Ему было двадцать лет) is used for exact numbers. Because юность (youth) is a stage of life rather than a specific number, Russian treats it as a time period. It uses the preposition в plus the Prepositional case instead.
What case is юности and why does it end in -и?
It is in the Prepositional case because of the preposition в (in). The dictionary form is юность (youth), which is a feminine noun ending in a soft sign (-ь). Feminine nouns that end in a soft sign take an -и ending in the Prepositional case instead of the usual -е.
Why do we use the imperfective verb читал here?
The sentence describes a repeated habit or continuous action over a long period of time (his youth). The imperfective form читал is perfect for this, whereas a perfective verb would imply he completely finished reading a specific item.
Why doesn't the word много change its ending?
In this sentence, много acts as an adverb meaning 'a lot'. It modifies the verb читал to tell us how much he read. Because it is not modifying a noun (like saying 'many books' in a specific case), it stays in its fixed dictionary form.