Learn Hardcore Russian: У тёти около сорока книг по истории, и она гордится этой коллекцией. - My aunt has about forty books on history, and she is proud of this collection.

У тёти около сорока книг по истории, и она гордится этой коллекцией.

My aunt has about forty books on history, and she is proud of this collection.

Breakdown of У тёти около сорока книг по истории, и она гордится этой коллекцией.

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Questions & Answers about У тёти около сорока книг по истории, и она гордится этой коллекцией.

Why does the sentence start with У тёти instead of something like Тётя имеет?

Russian usually expresses possession with the construction у + [genitive] rather than a verb like to have.

у тёти literally: at (the) aunt’s / by the aunt
In meaning: the aunt has …

The more “literal” тётя имеет is grammatically possible but:

sounds formal, bookish, or unnatural in everyday speech, and
is much less common than у тёти есть … or just у тёти ….

So У тёти около сорока книг… is the standard, natural way to say “My aunt has about forty books…”.

Why is it тёти and not тётя or тётю after у?

у always takes the genitive case.

Nominative: тётя (aunt – as the subject)
Genitive: тёти (of the aunt / the aunt’s)

Because we use у + genitive to show possession, we must say у тёти, not *у тётя or *у тётю.

What exactly does около mean here, and why is it followed by сорока?

около is a preposition that usually means:

“around / about / approximately” when used with numbers, and
it governs the genitive case.

So:

сорок = forty (basic form)
Genitive of сорок = сорока

With около you must use the genitive, so you get:

около сорока = about forty

The structure is: около + genitive of the number + genitive of the noun
→ около сорока книг = about forty books.

Why is it книг and not книги after сорока?

After most numerals from 5 upwards (пять, шесть, семь, …, сорок, …) the noun is in the genitive plural.

Singular nominative: книга – a book
Plural nominative: книги – books
Plural genitive: книг

With сорок (or here, сорока after около) you must use the genitive plural:

сорок книг = forty books
около сорока книг = about forty books

So книг is required by Russian number–case rules.

How is the numeral сорок declined, and why do we see сорока here?

сорок has an irregular but simple declension:

Nominative/Accusative: сорок
Genitive/Dative/Instrumental/Prepositional: сорока

Since около requires the genitive, we must use the genitive form:

около сорока книг – about forty books

You’ll never say *около сорок книг; it must be сорока.

What does по истории mean exactly, and which case is истории here?

по истории means “on history / in history / about history as an academic subject” – “books on the subject of history”.

The preposition по can take the dative case (among others), and in the meaning “in the field of / in the subject of”, it uses the dative:

Dative singular of история is истории
Prepositional singular is also истории, so the form looks the same.

Examples with the same pattern:

книга по истории – a book on history
учебник по математике – a textbook on mathematics
лекции по биологии – lectures on biology

So here истории is functioning as dative singular after по.

Could we say книг об истории instead of книг по истории? What’s the difference?

You can say книг об истории, but there is a nuance:

книги по истории – books on history as a subject/field, often neutral or academic: textbooks, scholarly books, etc.
книги об истории – books about history, more general, could be popular books, narratives, etc.

In many contexts they overlap, but по истории feels more like “subject-matter/discipline”, while об истории can sound more like “on the topic of history” in a broad sense.

In your sentence, по истории is very natural and idiomatic.

Why is it и она гордится, not just и гордится?

In Russian, the subject pronoun (она) can often be dropped because the verb form already shows the person and number.

и она гордится этой коллекцией – and she is proud of this collection
и гордится этой коллекцией – and (she) is proud of this collection

Both are grammatically correct.
Including она:

makes the subject explicit,
can add a slight emphasis on she (as opposed to someone else).

The sentence is clear either way, but including она is perfectly natural and slightly more explicit for learners.

What does the verb гордится come from, and why does it end in -ся?

гордится is the 3rd person singular present form of the reflexive verb гордиться – “to be proud (of)”.

Infinitive: гордиться – to be proud
Он/она/оно гордится – he/she/it is proud

The ending -ся (or -сь after a vowel) marks a reflexive verb in Russian. Reflexive verbs:

can mean “to do something to oneself”, or
can have meanings like “to be characterized by / to feel / to behave”, etc.

There is no non‑reflexive verb *гордить with this meaning in modern Russian; гордиться only exists in the reflexive form.

Why is it этой коллекцией and not something like эту коллекцию after гордится?

The verb гордиться requires its object in the instrumental case, not the accusative.

гордиться кем? чем? – to be proud of whom? what? (instrumental)
эта коллекция (nominative) → этой коллекцией (instrumental)

So:

*она гордится эту коллекцию – incorrect (accusative)
она гордится этой коллекцией – correct (instrumental)

Instrumental singular of эта коллекция:

Feminine adjective/pronoun: эта → этой
Feminine noun: коллекция → коллекцией

Together: этой коллекцией.

What is the difference between эта коллекция and её коллекция here? Could we say её коллекцией?

Yes, you could say её коллекцией, but it changes the nuance slightly:

эта коллекция – this collection (points to a specific collection just mentioned or visible in context)
её коллекция – her collection (belongs to her)

In your sentence:

и она гордится этой коллекцией implies: this collection (the one we just described with ~40 books) – she is proud of this particular collection.
и она гордится своей коллекцией – she is proud of her collection (more general, “her own collection”).
и она гордится её коллекцией – usually “she is proud of her (some other woman’s) collection”.

So этой коллекцией is the best choice to clearly refer back to около сорока книг по истории.

Why is there a comma before и in …по истории, и она гордится…? In English we often don’t put a comma before “and” here.

In Russian, this is a compound sentence: two separate clauses joined by и:

У тёти около сорока книг по истории – (There are) about forty history books at the aunt’s.
она гордится этой коллекцией – she is proud of this collection.

When coordinating two independent clauses like this, Russian normally requires a comma before и:

…, и она гордится…

English punctuation is looser here and may omit the comma, but Russian keeps it.

Does the word order У тёти около сорока книг по истории have to be like this? Could we move things around?

Russian word order is flexible, so some reordering is possible, but not all variants sound equally natural.

Very natural:

У тёти около сорока книг по истории.
У тёти по истории около сорока книг. (slightly different rhythm)

Possible but more marked / less neutral:

Книг по истории у тёти около сорока. (emphasis on books on history)
Около сорока книг по истории у тёти. (emphasis on about forty books)

The given order (У тёти около сорока книг по истории) is the most straightforward, neutral one.

Is тётя always “aunt”, or can it mean something else in Russian?

тётя primarily means “aunt” (father’s or mother’s sister, or sometimes a female family friend).

However, colloquially it can also mean:

“(older) lady / woman” in a casual or slightly childish way
- e.g. та тётя в магазине – that lady in the shop.

In your sentence, context suggests “(my) aunt”.
If you wanted to make “my aunt” explicit, you’d say:

У моей тёти около сорока книг по истории… – My aunt has about forty history books…