У моего отца совсем другой характер, он шутит даже на серьёзных встречах.

My father has a completely different character; he jokes even at serious meetings.

Breakdown of У моего отца совсем другой характер, он шутит даже на серьёзных встречах.

• мой: my
• на: at
• он: he
• даже: even

Questions & Answers about У моего отца совсем другой характер, он шутит даже на серьёзных встречах.

Why does the sentence start with У моего отца? What does this construction literally mean?

У моего отца is a common Russian way to express possession. Literally, it means something like “by my father” or “at my father’s (place/side)”, but in this context it’s best understood as “my father has”.

The pattern is:

• у + [noun/pronoun in Genitive] = “[someone] has …”
• So у моего отца (Genitive)
  • [что?] (subject) ≈ “my father has [what?]”.

Compare:

• У моего отца другой характер. – “My father has a different personality/character.”
• У меня есть машина. – “I have a car.”
• У неё много друзей. – “She has many friends.”

Russian usually avoids a direct equivalent of “to have” (like иметь) in everyday speech and uses у + Genitive instead.

What case is моего отца, and why do both words change?