Questions & Answers about Сегодня у меня лёгкий день.
Why is it у меня and not я имею лёгкий день?
Russian almost never uses иметь (“to have”) for everyday “have” sentences about yourself.
Instead, it uses the structure у + [person in genitive] + (есть) + noun:
- У меня лёгкий день. – I have an easy day.
- Literally: At me (there is) an easy day.
So у меня is the normal, idiomatic way to say “I have …”, while я имею лёгкий день would sound unnatural or overly formal/odd in this context.
What case is меня in, and why is it used here?
Меня is in the genitive case.
The preposition у (“at, by, near”) always takes the genitive. That’s a fixed rule:
- у меня – at me
- у тебя – at you
- у него/неё – at him/her
In this structure у меня means “I have…”, but grammatically it’s literally “at me”, which is why the genitive is used.
Where is the verb “to be”? Why is there no verb in the sentence?