Thread: был или была?

Originally Posted by ski-ops

I think my question is along similar lines.

New Penguin Russian Course, 17/5 question 3

In 1988 he was forty

their answer:

[quote:30bypy55]В тысяча девятьсот восемьдесят восьмом году ему было сорок (лет)

whereas I thought it would be был

Why is the correct answer the neuter form? What is было agreeing with in this sentence?[/quote:30bypy55]

You think it should be был because you are talking about a man.
But in Russian you don't say "He was 40", you say "To him were 40 years". So "He" is not the subject, so the verb быть does not agree with "him".

было agrees with the number сорок лет. In Russian when you have numbers the neuter form of verbs is often used instead of the plural. But you should just learn this as a set phrase for the moment.

You should remember, that only nouns in the nominative case can be the subject of the verb. Ему is the dative case "to him", therefore it can't be the subject of the verb and therefore the verb won't agree with it.

Ему было сорок лет
Indirect Object Verb Subject


To highlight the point that the verb agrees with the number, here are some variantions:

Мне было сорок лет. - I was 40
Ему было сорок лет. - He was 40
Ей было сорок лет. - She was 40
Нам было сорок лет. - We were 40
Им было сорок лет. - They were 40

I think my question is along similar lines.

Yes, this sentence is very similar to the examples we've already discussed in tocha's threads:
У нее был друг.
У Наташи было два сына.
etc.

You can't analyse Russian sentence relying on the word order of the English translation. "Ему было..." is not the same as "He was...". It has the same meaning, but the grammar constructions are different.
"Ему было 40 лет" ~ It was 40 to him".

But sometimes it's possible to say "В 1988 он был сорокалетним (мужчиной)", in this case "он" is a subject, so "быть" refers to it and turns into "был". Not the difference.

So "было" doesn't agree with "eму", because "eму" is not the subject of this sentence. Actually "ему/ей" can never be a subject of the sentence, because it's (obviously) not in the nominative case.

This kind of sentences is very common.
e.g. Ему было холодно - He was cold (literally "It was cold to him")
У него не было времени - - He had no time (literally "There were no time by him" (I'm not sure about 'by', but I think you got it )

Got it. Thanks everyone.