45 Comments
У тебя есть брат? is the most common version. Есть ли у тебя брат? is also fine, but less used.
Russian doesn't use a verb "to have" in the present tense.
Instead, they use a construction with a preposition, "at me there is ....; at you there is ..." etc.:
- у меня есть - at me there is = 'I have'
- у тебя есть - at you there is = 'you have'
- у него есть - at him/it there is = 'he/it has'
- у неё есть - at her there is = 'she has'
- у нас есть - at us there is = 'we have'
- у вас есть - at you there is = 'you have'
- у них есть - at them there is = 'they have'
Can you apply that in subjects? For example, if:
I have an apple = У меня есть яблоко
Then, how would it be:
It has a button (contextually referring to any object) = ???
I'm trying to see is a way to say that like:
У ??? есть радио
Insert the Russian word for "it", in place of your ???. Since Russian nouns can be masculine, feminine or neuter, the firm of the pronoun "it" will change, depending on the gender of the noun to which it refers. Его for masculine and neuter nouns, её for feminine. Then, to make it easier to pronounce, in this construction you add an н. So, У него есть..., У неё есть...
What's the difference between this as a question rather than a statement? I'm not sure the difference between у меня есть брат (I have a brother) and the use of тебя (Do you have a brother?) Is there something about тебя vs меня that implies a question rather than a statement?
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I thought that the inflection (tone of voice) would make the difference so this could be both statement and a question. Now I am not so sure.
In the comments of a later lesson on something similar someone replied with this as well, so I'm guessing it is just inflection rather than anything else... Hum!
It just makes it difficult without the upward inflection on the spoken parts. I want to get better at listening...
Computer speech doesn't show correct intonation here. Don't rely on it and try to find speech of native speakers. Google voice is better: http://goo.gl/4rSdfv
No, the difference is simply that меня is the genitive casa of я whlile тебя is the genitive case of ты.
You can't delete "есть" randomly. Here, you can drop it if your sentence is rather an answer to the question "Whom do you have?" than "Do you have a brother?"
Do we know this is 'you' singular because of the 'есть' form used?
(Edit: Nevermind, it's the 'тебя' part, as that part changes. I just gotta figure out how :) )
I don't understand what do you mean, but these are examples:
У меня есть брат. У нас есть брат (братья, if we are not from the same family).
У тебя есть брат? У вас есть брат (братья)?
Thanks, HATA! I was having trouble pinpointing which of the words was changing, and as such, indicated who was being talked about. I've since figured it out, though your examples are certainly not going to hurt other people who may be confused as I was. :)
"Брат у тебя?" will be perfect for this case =)
P.S. "У тебя брат?" sounds like somebody has a brother and a sister and this person said "my sibling came to me", and you're trying to guess: "the person that came to you is brother? Or sister?"
P.P.S. there is no word "з" in Russian.
Why is the audio saying "У" with a long "o" sound??? I thought "У" was a long "u" sound....I have a trip to Russia in 2 weeks and I will probably get killed thanks to this worthless site...
I'm sure some of the girls out there giggle at the pronunciation of << брат >>. It almost sounds like "brat"!
