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- Topic: Russian >
- "У неё есть велосипед."
41 Comments
Yes, in this particular case. In principle, the accusative form is exactly the same here. But be careful: there are two forms of this word (in both cases): "неё" and "её". In all instances I can think of right now you would use "неё" whenever these cases (genetive or accusative) follow prepositions.
Russian has a peculiar way of expressing possession, which I already described earlier in this thread -- please read the entire thread before posting duplicate questions. In any case, I am quoting myself:
The Russian way of saying "A has B" is "У A (genitive) есть B (nominative)" which literally translates into "B is by/with A".
1489
I said "She has a bike" but DL said I was wrong and corrected it to "She's a bike"... Um okay.
Most likely you've made a typo somewhere. Once DL thinks you are wrong, it tries to "recover", and the version it offers may not always match the one you had in mind. Nor it is always grammatical, like in this case: DL has probably a hard-coded rule that "she's" is an acceptable short-hand for "she has" (which it is in expressions like "she's got...", but not here), and then it suggests it even when it's wrong.
507
If the bike is a mountain bike, then the name "байк"is wide used for it among cyclists. Context eliminates confusion. In normal life, a bicycle can be shortened to "велик" - among children, or "вел" - among adults.
That's just how Russian grammar works. "Y" pretty much means "with", and "неё есть" in that context means "she has/possesses". So the direct translation would be " With her she has a (insert item)", but we just say "She has a (insert item)".
I didnt invent the Russian language, so I can't tell you why this is what you use in this case, but you just have to learn that this is the correct usage of this type of sentence.