"Mom and dad have horses."

Translation: У мамы и папы есть лошади.

[JohnWaynebruh]

Why does there need to be "у" from the start?

[Lingwat]

Because you're talking about possession just like «У меня ест яблоко.»

«У мамы есть лошади» - "In Mom's possession there are horses"

«У мамы и папы есть лошади» - "In mom's and dad's possession there are horses"

It doesn't change just because you're talking about two people, you still need the preposition «У».

[rajneeshku586691]

Thanks for explanation

[elsantodel90]

I was marked wrong with "у мамы и у папы есть лошади". Is it an invalid sentence with that extra "у"? I think it is definitely a valid sentence with an extra "и" at the beginning (to say "both mom and dad have horses").

[Lingwat]

I'm confused about this, too, however I think it may be because you're speaking about them as a collective owner rather than two people who both own horses.

By saying «И у мамы и у папы есть лошади» you'd be saying "Both in Mom's possession and in Dad's possession there are horses", implying that they each happen to own horses.

By saying «У мамы и папы есть лошади» you'd be saying "In the collective possession if mom and dad there are horses."

Again I'm not certain but that's what seems to be the case to me. Maybe someone else can confirm?

[SergioAndr658303]

It would be like saying "both mom and both dad has horses" you don't need to say twice

[sheecko]

Dont use the second у

[VadimGaliev]

Russians often talks so. Your variant is correct.

[RikVlasblom]

У ((genative) и (genative)) есть (nominative)

У мама (-a+ы) и папа (-a+ы) есть лошадь (-ь+и)

У мамы и папы есть лошади.

https://www.duolingo.com/skill/ru/Genitive-Case---1/tips-and-notes

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%88%D0%B0%D0%B4%D1%8C#Russian

https://www.duolingo.com/skill/ru/Plurals/tips-and-notes

[Elizabeth736652]

Thank you!

[Cey889]

Why is 'horses' not in Genitive though?

[ThePatrician]

Папа is masculine, right? Doesn't а only turn into ы in feminine nouns? These cases are really confusing me.

[majahfmn]

I am not a 100% sure but i remember my teacher telling us that папа is a masculine word but is "gramatically handled" as feminine (because of the word ending).

[Shivaadh]

There is no logical relationship between grammatical gender and "real life" gender. Thus a word can be masculine in grammar, but feminine in real life (and vice versa).

Focusing on the endings of words instead can help you determine grammatical case:

In the nominative singular, the stem ending is,

1. for masculine nouns:

2. all hard consonants and й;

3. usually ь

4. f.:

5. all а and (и)я,
   (but not мя);

6. occasionally ь

7. n.:
   almost all end
   о, (и)е, ё, мя

(Source: PONS cheatsheet https://de.pons.com/grammatik-wortschatz/pons-grammatik-auf-einen-blick-russisch-978-3-12-561908-1/russisch)

[firstlos]

Since Russians usually drop есть in this construction, is there a good reason not to accept this throughtout? I mean, in the construction "У кого-то есть что-то," the word есть can be dropped, right?

One last thing. I've heard the usage "Есть у тебя что-то," but last I checked, this inversion was not accepted by DL. It is correct ((colloquial) usage, isn't it?

[mosfet07]

"есть" is usually dropped in the present tense when you define the relationship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_copula
(папа - лошадь / dad is a horse)

In possessive constructions (like this) it's usually kept https://www.duolingo.com/comment/11885358
(у папы есть лошадь / dad has a horse)

[Shivaadh]

This question keeps cropping up. From what I have read on other Duolingo discussions, I gathered that есть is only kept when the existence of the object is in question.

But concerning possession, it seems clear to me that the object always exists and the real question is who owns it. To confirm, I've seen several DL exercises by now (level 4), where есть was left out in some examples of possession.

So I am going to upvote this question, in the hopes that a native speaker will explain...

[firstlos]

Yes, I checked a few sources other than those you provided and you are correct. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. )))

[Shivaadh]

The Duolingo discussion that you posted does NOT say it's usually kept in possessive constructions!!! I really don't understand how extrapolated that. It says exactly what I said earlier. Sometimes "it" is kept.

[Kat45606]

Есть is it really necessary,? Yмамы и папы лошади...means the same right?

[sdb2003]

Мама и папа у лошадей.
is what I got as a translation and it told me it was wrong and I don't understand how it is wrong will someone help me?

[4BtO6]

I think that means "Mom and dad are inside horses"

[VadimGaliev]

You wrote: mother and father have visit to horses

[PeterDidek]

What about: у мамы с папой есть лошади

[Deyw99]

That basically means: Mom with dad have horses...Aah, doesn't exactly sound right.

[VadimGaliev]

Russian oftes speak so

[RvZe5]

Есть this eat or have??

[dexterinthedark]

however I type est' it always thinks I did it wrong.

[Janice974134]

Why is it есть and not едят when mom and dad are two people thus is plural?

[dePontbria]

Please, what is the difference between папа и мама and папа у мама?

[NNXComputi]

и = and, у ≠ and

[NatsuDragn17]

This sentence reminds me of "The Ring" movie.

[EwaSanders]

In this particular exercise there is no "Y" in Russian version to copy and paste. I used Capital Y and it took it but pointed "the typo".
Also in those translations from English into Russian the Russian words are "escaping" before I can copy them and paste. Sometimes it takes me 20 times before they stay long enough that I have time to copy them and paste. It is pretty frustrating. Can you give us Russian letters to type it with? Thanks!

[MaryHayes10]

You can download a Russian keyboard in your settings on you mobile device.

[WilliamNat930665]

I reversed mom and dad and got a wrong answer. Come on, that's childish.

[AaronBoyce6]

In Russian is there room for moving the words around in a sentence and maintaining the same meaning? I know in some languages you could start with the object and then follow by saying who possesses it. Just curious since there aren't any grammar manuals on here that I'm aware of. Tia

[JacquesFre5]

У мамы и у папы есть лошади. was accepted.