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Questions & Answers about У меня хорошая память.
Why do we use У меня instead of Я имею to express “I have”?
In Russian, possession is most naturally expressed with у + genitive (and optionally есть). So У меня хорошая память literally means “At me [is] good memory.” While Я имею память would be understood, иметь in this sense sounds bookish or overly formal and is rarely used in everyday speech.
What case is меня, and why?
Меня is the genitive singular form of я (“I”). The preposition у always requires the following noun or pronoun to be in the genitive case, so у + кого? → у меня (“at me”).
Why isn’t there a verb like есть (“to be”) in the sentence?
In Russian, the present‐tense form of быть (“to be”)—namely есть—is usually omitted. The full version would be У меня есть хорошая память, but in everyday speech and writing you drop есть without changing the meaning.
What case and gender is память, and why is хорошая used here?