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Questions & Answers about У нас одинаковые куртки.
Why does у нас mean we have? It looks like at us, not we have.
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.
What case is нас in у нас, and why is it used here?