Breakdown of Папин друг стареет, теперь он выглядит на десять лет старше.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
друг
friend
десять
ten
год
year
теперь
now (as opposed to before)
старше
older
выглядеть
to look, to appear
папин
dad's
на
by (a difference in amount)
стареть
to age
Questions & Answers about Папин друг стареет, теперь он выглядит на десять лет старше.
Why do we need на before десять лет?
In Russian, to express by how much something is different, you use на followed by the Accusative case of the amount, then the comparative word. Here, на десять лет literally means 'by ten years', and старше is the comparative form of 'old'.
Why is it Папин друг instead of Друг папы?
Both mean 'Dad's friend', but папин is a possessive adjective. Nouns for family members like мама or папа often form possessive adjectives ending in -ин. This sounds very natural and slightly more colloquial than using the Genitive case друг папы.
Why is 'years' translated as лет here instead of годов?
The number десять requires the following noun to be in the Genitive plural. The word for year (год) is irregular: its Genitive plural completely changes to лет (which is related to the word for 'summer').
Could I use смотрит instead of выглядит for 'looks'?
No, смотреть means to actively look at or watch something. When you want to describe someone's physical appearance or how they seem, you must use выглядеть.
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