Breakdown of Мой дедушка очень суеверный, он всегда боится беды.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
мой
my / mine
очень
very
всегда
always
Questions & Answers about Мой дедушка очень суеверный, он всегда боится беды.
Why is беды in the genitive case here?
In Russian, verbs expressing fear, such as бояться (to fear / be afraid of), require their object to be in the genitive case instead of the accusative. The dictionary form is беда (trouble), which changes to беды in the genitive.
Why is the adjective суеверный in the masculine form when дедушка ends in -а?
Although дедушка (grandfather) has an -а ending typical of feminine nouns, it refers to a male person. In Russian, biological gender overrides the noun's ending, so all modifiers must be masculine. That is why we use мой and суеверный.
Why does боится have the reflexive ending -ся if he is afraid of an external thing?
The suffix -ся often means an action is done to oneself, but Russian has many verbs where -ся is simply part of the word and doesn't imply a reflexive action. Бояться is one of these inherently reflexive verbs; it is never used without the -ся or -сь ending.
Could I use проблемы instead of беды here?
Grammatically, yes, you could say боится проблемы, but the meaning changes. Беда is stronger and translates to 'misfortune', 'disaster', or a deeper sense of 'trouble'. A superstitious person fears bad luck or misfortune (беда), whereas a проблема is just a standard everyday issue you need to solve.