To Have Got and the Genitive Case of Russian Pronouns

To Have Got and the Genitive Case of Russian Pronouns

My dear readers,

We are continuing our topic about the Russian Personal pronouns. And this is the companion post to yet another episode of my podcast where we are learning how to express possession or in other words how to say I have got, you have got, she has got etc. To listen to the episode, please, go here.

Did you know that Russians don't actually say I have got. What they really say in this situation literally means ‘At me is’. The sentence ‘I have got a family will literally sound like ‘At me is a family’, or ‘at me a family’ or ‘a family at me’. You shouldn’t forget about the flexibility of the Russian word order J

So we need the preposition at and in Russian it will be ‘у’. Just that simple. And also we will need the pronouns in Genitive, however, good news, they are absolutely identical to their Accusative forms which you must remember from our previous episode. Я люблю́ тебя́. А ты лю́бишь меня́?

У + меня́ = у меня́; У + тебя́ = у тебя́. And now we also need to add a noun in the Nominative case. What exactly have you got? У меня́ семья́. У тебя́ рабóта.

You can also add the verb to be in its Present Tense form, which is есть. And we will have У меня́ есть семья. У тебя́ есть рабóта.

What can be easier? 

Below you can see all the words and phrases which you can hear in the related episode of the podcast.

У – at, near

Есть – Present Tense form of the verb to be, usually omitted

Семья́ - family, рабóта – job or work, дом – a house, дéти – children, дéньги – money, врéмя – time, возмо́жность – opportunity.

У меня́ (есть), у тебя́ (есть), у негó (есть), у неё (есть), у негó (есть), у нас (есть), у вас / Вас (есть), у них (есть)

Please, pay attention, instead of егó and их, in this situation we are using у негó, у них with the letter «н». This is done for the phrase to sound better.

У меня́ есть семья́. – I have got a family.

У тебя́ есть семья́. – You have got a family.

У меня́ есть рабóта. – I have got a job.

У тебя́ есть рабóта. – You have got a job.

У негó есть дом. – He has got a house.

У неё есть дéти. – She has got children.

У нас есть дéньги. – We have got money.

У вас / Вас есть врéмя. – You have got time.

У них есть возмóжность. – They have got an opportunity.

See how much we have learnt now! We only have three more cases to learn. So the Dative case will come next. And this will happen really soon!

Thank you so much for reading this post. I am really looking forward to your comments here, in my blog ‘Say It in Russian’ and you are also more than welcome to follow my channel on Sound Cloud. The channel has got the same name as the blog ‘Say it in Russian’.

Fall in love with the Russian language and culture if you still haven't. All in all it is not as difficult as it may seem, just don’t be afraid, Say It in Russian!

Have a great week ahead and see you very soon!

С любовью,

Дарья