Questions & Answers about У нас одинаковые куртки.
Russian usually expresses possession with the construction у + [person in genitive] + [thing]. Literally it’s at [person] [there is] [thing], but in English we translate it as [person] has [thing].
- у нас одинаковые куртки
Literally: At us [there are] identical jackets.
Natural English: We have the same jackets.
This pattern is very common:
- У меня есть брат. – I have a brother.
- У него машина. – He has a car.
- У них проблема. – They have a problem.
So у нас is the standard way to say we have in most contexts.
Нас is the genitive plural form of мы (we).
The preposition у (in the sense at / by / near / belonging to) always takes the genitive case. When used to express possession, it still governs the genitive:
- у меня – at me → I have
- у тебя – at you (informal) → you have
- у него / у неё – at him / her → he / she has
- у нас – at us → we have
- у вас – at you (plural / formal) → you have
- у них – at them → they have
So нас is genitive because у requires the genitive.
The full “textbook” pattern is:
- У нас есть одинаковые куртки. – We have the same jackets.
However, in everyday Russian, есть is often omitted when:
- The existence of the thing is obvious from context, or
- You are simply describing what someone has, not contrasting have vs don’t have.
Compare:
У нас есть одинаковые куртки.
Slight emphasis on the fact that we do have them (e.g., in contrast to someone saying you don’t).У нас одинаковые куртки.
More like a neutral statement: Our jackets are the same / We have the same jackets.
In your sentence, the focus is not on existence (whether you have jackets at all) but on the fact that they are the same, so dropping есть is natural and very common.
Grammatically, Мы имеем одинаковые куртки is correct, but it sounds unnatural and overly formal in everyday speech. The verb иметь (to have) is used:
- In official, formal, or technical contexts
- In set expressions (e.g., иметь право – to have the right)
For normal, everyday have, native speakers strongly prefer у + genitive:
- У нас одинаковые куртки. – natural
- Мы имеем одинаковые куртки. – strange in casual conversation
So for speaking and everyday writing, you should use у нас rather than мы имеем.
Because we are talking about more than one jacket, the noun is plural, and the adjective must agree with it in gender, number, and case.
- куртка – feminine singular nominative
- куртки – feminine plural nominative
The adjective одинаковый (identical, the same) must match:
- Singular feminine: одинаковая куртка – an identical/the same jacket
- Plural (any gender mix): одинаковые куртки – identical/same jackets
In your sentence, there are at least two jackets (one on each person), so plural is required: одинаковые куртки.
Both are often translated as the same jackets, but the nuance is slightly different:
одинаковые куртки
- Literally: identical jackets
- Focus on identity/similarity of the jackets themselves.
- Natural English: identical jackets / matching jackets / the same jackets.
такие же куртки
- Literally: the same kind of jackets (as someone else’s)
- Usually used in comparison: “the same as those.”
- Example:
- У нас такие же куртки, как у них.
We have the same jackets as they do.
- У нас такие же куртки, как у них.
In your sentence, if you just mean our jackets match / are identical, У нас одинаковые куртки is perfect. If you are explicitly comparing to another person’s jackets, такие же with a как… phrase is very common:
- У нас такие же куртки, как у тебя.
We have the same jackets as you.
одинаковые куртки normally implies separate but identical jackets (same model, color, style, etc.).
If you wanted to say that you literally share one and the same physical jacket, you would use одна и та же куртка:
- У нас одна и та же куртка.
Literally: We have one and the same jacket.
Meaning: It’s the same physical object that somehow belongs to both of you.
So:
- У нас одинаковые куртки. – We each have our own jacket, but they’re identical.
- У нас одна и та же куртка. – It’s one jacket shared between us.
Yes, you can say Одинаковые куртки у нас, and it is grammatically correct. The difference is in emphasis and style:
У нас одинаковые куртки.
Neutral word order; focus on who has them (we have the same jackets).Одинаковые куртки у нас.
Slightly unusual / more expressive; can emphasize the jackets or sound like a correction or contrast, for example:
– Whose jackets are the same?
– Одинаковые куртки у нас. – We are the ones with the same jackets.
In everyday speech, У нас одинаковые куртки is more standard and common.
In У нас одинаковые куртки, the noun phrase одинаковые куртки functions as a kind of subject of an implied verb are / there are.
The structure is:
- У нас – a phrase indicating whose (genitive with у)
- (есть / —) – implied verb there is/are or are
- одинаковые куртки – what exists / what we have → nominative
So you can think of it as:
- У нас (есть) одинаковые куртки. – At us (there are) identical jackets.
In Russian, the thing that “exists” in such existential / possession sentences is typically in the nominative case, which is why куртки is nominative plural.
У нас одинаковые куртки usually means we have the same jackets (own/possess them). In context, it can also imply you’re wearing them, but if you want to clearly emphasize wearing, a more explicit and very natural phrase is:
- Мы в одинаковых куртках. – We are in the same jackets / We are wearing identical jackets.
Notice:
- в одинаковых куртках – preposition в + prepositional plural
- куртках – prepositional plural of куртка
- одинаковых – adjective in prepositional plural, agreeing with куртках
So:
- У нас одинаковые куртки. – focus on possession.
- Мы в одинаковых куртках. – focus on what you are wearing right now.
одинаковые has five syllables:
- о-ди-на-ко-вы-е
The stress is on the second syllable: о-ДИ-на-ко-вы-е
Pronounced approximately as:
- [a-dee-NAH-ka-vy-ye]
Details:
- The first о in unstressed position sounds like a short a: a.
- Stressed а in на is a clear ah sound.
- Final -ые is like -i-ye in English approximation.
So: а-ди-НА-ка-вы-е with the main stress on НА.