У меня болит щёка.

My cheek hurts.

Breakdown of У меня болит щёка.

• меня: me
• болеть: to hurt
• щёка: the cheek

Questions & Answers about У меня болит щёка.

Why do we say У меня instead of using я as the subject?

In Russian, pains, illnesses, and many “having” situations are often expressed with the structure у + Genitive instead of using я as a subject.

• У меня literally means “at me / by me” and uses the Genitive case (я → меня).
• The real grammatical subject of the sentence is щёка (cheek), not я.
• So the structure is: У меня болит щёка = “At me hurts the cheek.”

Compare:

• У меня есть книга. – I have a book. (literally “At me there is a book.”)
• У меня болит щёка. – My cheek hurts. (literally “At me hurts the cheek.”)

Using я as the subject (Я болит щёка) would be ungrammatical.

What case is меня in, and why?

Меня is the Genitive singular of я (“I”).

The pattern is:

• у + Genitive = “at / by (someone)”

So:

• у меня – at me
• у тебя – at you (informal)
• у него / у неё – at him / at her
• у нас – at us
• у вас – at you (plural/formal)
• у них – at them

In sentences about pain, possession, etc., Russian uses this “у + Genitive” structure instead of a subject pronoun.