Breakdown of Я сумел выполнить поручение, хотя срок был жёсткий.
я
I
быть
to be
срок
deadline, term
хотя
although
Questions & Answers about Я сумел выполнить поручение, хотя срок был жёсткий.
Why is выполнить in the perfective aspect here?
After verbs indicating successful achievement of a result, like суметь (to manage to), Russian requires a perfective infinitive. Because you actually succeeded in doing it, the action is viewed as a completed whole, so we use the perfective выполнить (to complete) rather than the imperfective выполнять.
Why use сумел instead of the imperfective умел?
The imperfective уметь means to possess a general skill, like knowing how to swim or speak French. The perfective суметь means to successfully manage or find a way to do a specific action in a specific situation. Since this sentence is about succeeding at one specific task despite a tight deadline, the perfective сумел is required.
What case is поручение in? It looks like the dictionary form.
It is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb выполнить. Since поручение is an inanimate neuter noun, its accusative form looks exactly the same as its nominative (dictionary) form.
Does жёсткий literally mean strict?
Literally, жёсткий means hard, stiff, or rigid (like a hard chair). However, it is very commonly used metaphorically to mean strict, tight, or harsh. You will often see it used with deadlines (жёсткий срок), rules (жёсткие правила), or conditions.