Questions & Answers about У него болит грудь.
Why does the sentence use у него instead of just он?
Because Russian often expresses physical states like something hurts with a structure that is closer to at him than to he.
So:
- он = he
- у него = literally at him / he has
In sentences about pain, Russian commonly says:
- У меня болит голова. = I have a headache / literally At me, the head hurts
- У него болит грудь. = His chest hurts
So у него marks the person experiencing the pain, not the grammatical subject of the verb.
Why is it него, not его?
The basic genitive form of он is его, but after many prepositions, Russian adds н-:
- у него
- к нему
- с ним
- для него
So after у, you must say у него, not у его.
Why is грудь the subject of the sentence?