Word
Он путешествует один, но ему никогда не скучно.
Meaning
He travels alone, but he is never bored.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Он путешествует один, но ему никогда не скучно.
не
not
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
ему
to him, to it
но
but
Questions & Answers about Он путешествует один, но ему никогда не скучно.
In English, "alone" is an adverb, but here we use один, which is the number one. How does this work?
In Russian, один acts like an adjective when it means "alone." This means it must agree in gender and number with the person who is alone. Since the subject is он (he), we use the masculine singular один. If a woman were traveling, it would be Она путешествует одна, and for a group, it would be Они путешествуют одни.
Why does the second half of the sentence use ему (to him) instead of он (he)?
In Russian, personal feelings and physical states are usually expressed with impersonal sentences. Instead of saying "he is bored," you literally say "to him it is boring." The person experiencing the feeling must be in the Dative case, which changes он to ему.
Why are there two negative words, никогда and не, right next to each other?
Russian requires a double negative. Whenever you use a negative word like никогда (never), никто (no one), or нигде (nowhere), you must also place не (not) before the verb or state word to make the sentence grammatically correct. It literally translates to "to him never not boring."
Could I say ему никогда не скучный to mean he is not bored?