Learn Russian: Хотя он военный, он любит искусство. - Although he is a military man, he loves art.

Хотя он военный, он любит искусство.

Although he is a military man, he loves art.

Breakdown of Хотя он военный, он любит искусство.

он

he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)

Questions & Answers about Хотя он военный, он любит искусство.

Why is военный used as a noun here, and how does it change for other cases?

Военный is a substantivized adjective, which is the focus of this lesson. It means a military man or serviceman. It acts completely like a noun in a sentence, but it declines exactly like a standard masculine adjective. For example, its genitive form is военного and its plural is военные.

Why is военный in the nominative case here rather than the instrumental case?

In the present tense, when stating someone's profession or identity (where the verb to be is implied), Russian typically uses the nominative case. If this were in the past or future tense, you would often use the instrumental case, like он был военным (he was a military man).

Does the word хотя require a specific word order or punctuation?

Хотя (although) introduces a subordinate clause. The word order inside the clause is flexible, just like in English. However, Russian punctuation rules strictly require that you always separate the хотя clause from the main clause with a comma, which is why there is a comma before the second он.

Why does искусство keep its dictionary ending after the verb любит?

The verb любить takes a direct object in the accusative case. However, искусство (art) is an inanimate neuter noun. For all neuter nouns, as well as masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative case looks exactly identical to the nominative dictionary form.