Possessive construction «У меня есть» (I have)

To express the possession or ownership of something, we use the construction «У меня есть» [U minya est’] (I have).

An affirmative sentence: preposition «у» [u] + pronoun in Genitive case + verb «есть» [est’] (have/has) + noun in Nominative case

To understand any construction, you need to practise a lot. Then you will memorize words in correct form without any effort.

У меня есть дом. [U minya est’ dom] – I have a house.
У него есть жена. [U nivo est’ zhina] – He has a wife.
У нас есть работа. [U nas est’ rabota] – They have a job.
У них есть цель в жизни.[U nikh est’ tsel’ v zhizni] – They have a purpose in their life.

Tell us about yourself. What do you have? Do you have a cat? Computer? Best friend, hobby, favorite book? Tell us about your friends. What do they have?
Note: you are allowed not to use the verb «есть» in some cases. For example:

У меня рыжие волосы. [U minya ryzhii volasy] – I have red hair.

We omit the verb «есть», when we are talking about something obvious. Almost everybody has hair – that is nature. And since it is an obvious fact, you can omit this verb.

Negative sentence: preposition «у» + pronoun in Genitive case + verb «есть» + noun in Genitive case:

У меня нет детей [U minya net ditey] – I do not have children.
У нее нет времени [U niyo net vremini] – She does not have any time.
У вас нет книги [U vas net knigi] – You do not have any book.

What if you want to ask about the availability of anything? Interrogative sentence: preposition «у» + pronoun in Genitive case + «есть» + noun in Nominative case.

Read the following dialogue:

- У вас есть учебник «Русский язык для иностранцев»? – Do you have a textbook «Russian for foreigners»?

- Извините, у нас нет учебника. У меня есть рабочая тетрадь. – Sorry, we don’t have any. But we have an exercise book.

- У меня уже есть тетрадь – I already have an exercise book.