Word
В субботу у меня выходной.
Meaning
On Saturday I have a day off.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Questions & Answers about В субботу у меня выходной.
What does у меня literally mean here, and why don’t we just say я имею?
Literally, у меня means something like “at me / by me / with me”.
The full underlying structure is:
- (В субботу) у меня (есть) выходной.
= “(On Saturday) at me (there is) a day off.”
In Russian, possession is usually expressed with у + Genitive + (есть) + noun, not with a verb like иметь (“to have”) in everyday speech.
- у меня есть машина – I have a car
- у него есть время – He has time
In our sentence, есть is just omitted (see next question), which is very common.
Using я имею + object is possible but sounds bookish or formal and is rare in everyday conversation, especially for simple possessions like days off.
So В субботу у меня выходной is the normal, natural way to say it.
Why is there no verb “to be” in the sentence? Is that allowed?