whereas I thought it would be былOriginally Posted by ski-ops
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