Word
Я вложил столько же лет, сколько и ты, чтобы заслужить эту должность.
Meaning
I invested as many years as you did to deserve this position.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Я вложил столько же лет, сколько и ты, чтобы заслужить эту должность.
и
and
я
I
ты
you (singular)
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
Questions & Answers about Я вложил столько же лет, сколько и ты, чтобы заслужить эту должность.
What role do the words же and и play in the phrase столько же лет, сколько и ты?
They add emphasis. While столько лет, сколько ты simply means "as many years as you", adding же and и stresses the exact equivalence, translating closer to "exactly as many years as you did."
Why is the word for "years" (лет) in the genitive case here?
The word столько (so much / so many) functions as a quantifier, similar to numbers of 5 or more or words like много (a lot). These quantifiers always require the following noun to be in the genitive case. Here, we use the genitive plural лет.
I know лет comes from the word for "summer" (лето). Why aren't we using a form of год for "years"?
In Russian, counting years is a classic exception. You use forms of год for numbers ending in 1, 2, 3, and 4 (except 11-14), but for 5 and above, as well as with indefinite quantity words like сколько and столько, Russian switches to лет (literally "summers").
Why is there a comma before чтобы заслужить, and what does чтобы mean with the infinitive here?