Breakdown of Оба брата значительно постарели за эти два года.
брат
brother
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
два
two
год
year
за
in (within a period of time)
оба
both (m/n)
значительно
significantly
постареть
to grow old
Questions & Answers about Оба брата значительно постарели за эти два года.
The current lesson is about using на to show a difference in amount. Why isn't на used with значительно here?
The lesson focuses on на + amount + comparative adjective (like на два года старше). Here, the comparative idea is built into the verb постарели (to become older). Because значительно (significantly) is an adverb directly modifying the verb, it doesn't need на. If you used the comparative adjective старше, you would use на, like стали старше на много лет.
Does the prefix по- in постарели mean they aged 'a little bit'?
Not in this case. While по- often means doing something for a short time or a little bit (like поработать), when added to verbs derived from adjectives, it simply forms the perfective aspect to show a completed change of state. Постареть just means 'to age' or 'to grow old'. Combined with значительно, they clearly aged a lot!
Why do we use за + Accusative (за эти два года) instead of в течение + Genitive for 'over these two years'?
Both can translate to 'during' or 'over,' but за + Accusative is used to show the time it took to reach a completed result. Because the sentence uses the perfective verb постарели to emphasize a finished change in their appearance, за is the natural choice to mark the timeframe of that completed change.
Why is the verb постарели in the plural when брата is in the genitive singular?
After the numeral оба (both) in the nominative case, masculine nouns must take the genitive singular form (брата). However, because the subject represents multiple living people, the grammatical logic takes over and uses the plural verb form (постарели) to reflect that there is more than one brother.
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