Breakdown of Этому мальчику пять лет, и он не хочет отойти от мамы.
и
and
мама
mom
не
not
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
мальчик
boy
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
хотеть
to want
пять
five
год
year
от
from
отойти
to step away / depart (pf)
Questions & Answers about Этому мальчику пять лет, и он не хочет отойти от мамы.
Why is отойти used here instead of the imperfective отходить?
Отойти is perfective. Even though it follows не хочет (doesn't want), it refers to a single, specific action in the current moment: he doesn't want to step away from his mom right now, as opposed to a general habit.
Why do we need the preposition от right after a verb that already has the от- prefix?
This is a common pattern in Russian! Verbs of motion with the prefix от- (meaning to step away from something or someone) almost always pair with the preposition от followed by the Genitive case. Here, мама becomes мамы.
Why does the sentence start with Этому мальчику in the Dative case?
In Russian, to express someone's age, you must put the person or animal in the Dative case. Literally, this structure translates to 'To this boy is five years.'
Why is the word for 'years' лет instead of a form of год?
When counting years from five upwards (5-20), Russian uses лет (which is related to the word for 'summer') instead of the regular word for year (год). Since the boy is five (пять), it triggers this Genitive plural form.
Why is the prefix spelled ото- in отойти instead of just от-?
The standard prefix is от-, but Russian often adds a vowel to make it ото- before roots that start with certain difficult consonant clusters. This is done entirely to make pronunciation easier, which is very common with prefixes attached to the base verb идти.
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