У меня болит нос.

me

Breakdown of У меня болит нос.

• болеть: to hurt
• нос: the nose

Questions & Answers about У меня болит нос.

Why do we say У меня instead of just Я?

In Russian, physical states and possessions are often expressed with the structure у + [person in genitive].

• У меня болит нос is literally: “At me the nose hurts.”
• This is the most natural way to say “My nose hurts” in Russian.

So instead of saying something like Я болю нос (which is wrong), Russian says that at you there is a nose that hurts: У меня болит нос.

What case is меня, and why is it used here?

Меня is the genitive form of я (“I”).

After the preposition у (“at, by”), Russian normally uses the genitive case to show possession or a state belonging to someone:

• у меня – at me / I have
• у тебя – at you / you have
• у него – at him / he has

So у меня is “at me,” and with болит нос it gives “At me the nose hurts.”

What is the subject of the sentence? Is я / меня the subject?