Я болею за их команду.

I root for their team.

Breakdown of Я болею за их команду.

• я: I
• команда: the team
• их: their
• болеть за: to support

Questions & Answers about Я болею за их команду.

In other contexts болею means “I am ill”. Why does it mean “I support” here?

Russian болеть has two common meanings:

1. To be ill / to have a disease

   • Pattern: болеть чем?
     
     • Я болею гриппом. – I have the flu.

2. To root for / to be a fan of someone or a team

   • Pattern: болеть за кого? / за что?
     
     • Я болею за их команду. – I support their team.

So the preposition за after болею tells you this is the “root for, cheer for” meaning, not the “be ill” meaning. Context and the construction болеть за are the key.

What is the infinitive and full conjugation of болею?

The infinitive is боле́ть (imperfective verb).

Present tense:

• я боле́ю – I am ill / I support
• ты боле́ешь – you (sg, informal) are ill / support
• он / она / оно боле́ет – he / she / it is ill / supports
• мы боле́ем – we are ill / support
• вы боле́ете – you (pl / formal) are ill / support
• они боле́ют – they are ill / support

Past tense:

• я / он боле́л
• я / она боле́ла
• оно боле́ло
• мы / вы / они боле́ли

Future (because it’s imperfective):

• я бу́ду боле́ть за их команду – I will support their team.

Why do we use за here, and what case does it take in за их команду?

Here за means “for, in favor of, supporting”. With this meaning, за takes the accusative case:

• болеть за кого? за что?
  
  • за их команду – for their team (accusative)
  • за Россию – for Russia (accusative)
  • за тебя – for you (accusative)

The same за can also mean “behind / beyond / on the other side of”, and then it usually takes the instrumental:

• за домо́м – behind the house
• за столо́м – at / behind the table

So: за + accusative = “for, in favor of”,
за + instrumental = “behind, beyond, at”.

In Я болею за их команду, it’s the “for” meaning, so команду is accusative.

What case is команду, and why not команда?

Команда is the nominative singular (dictionary form).

In за их команду, the noun is governed by the preposition за with the meaning “for, in favor of”, which requires the accusative case.

Declension of кома́нда (feminine):

• Nominative: кома́нда – team (subject)
• Genitive: кома́нды – of the team
• Dative: кома́нде – to the team
• Accusative: кома́нду – team (object, here after за)
• Instrumental: кома́ндой – with/by the team
• Prepositional: о кома́нде – about the team

So команду is accusative singular, required by за in this construction.

How do I know that их here means “their” and not “them”?

Их can function in two ways:

1. Possessive “their” (before a noun)

   • их команда – their team
   • их дом – their house

2. Object pronoun “them” (without a following noun)

   • Я вижу их. – I see them.

In за их команду, их comes right before a noun (команду), so it is clearly possessive: “their team”.

If it meant “them” (as people) and not “their team”, it would likely appear without a noun, e.g. Я болею за них – I support them.

Does их change form for gender, number, or case?

As a possessive (“their”), их is invariable: it never changes its form.

• их команда – their team (feminine singular, nominative)
• их команду – their team (feminine singular, accusative)
• их команды – their teams (plural)
• с их командой – with their team (instrumental)

The form их stays exactly the same; only the noun changes its ending.

As a personal pronoun (“them”), их is also the same in genitive and accusative plural:

• Я вижу их. – I see them. (accusative)
• У них есть дом. – They have a house. (у + genitive plural)

So in modern standard Russian, их does not change; context tells you whether it means “their” or “them”.

(Colloquial forms like ихний, ихняя etc. exist but are considered nonstandard.)

Can I leave out их and just say Я болею за команду?

Yes. Я болею за команду is grammatically correct and natural.

The difference in meaning:

• Я болею за их команду. – I support their team (clearly some specific other group’s team).
• Я болею за команду. – I support the team; which team must be clear from context (for example, the team already being discussed).

So их simply adds “whose team” it is.

Can I say Я болею за них instead of Я болею за их команду?

You can, but the nuance is slightly different:

• Я болею за их команду. – I support their team (explicitly the team as an entity).
• Я болею за них. – I support them (the people); in a sports context this is usually understood as “I support their team / I support them as a team”.

Both are possible for sports fans. За их команду is a bit more precise; за них is more general and could refer to a group of people in many situations, not only sports.

Is the pronoun Я necessary? Can I just say Болею за их команду?

You can omit Я.

In Russian, the verb ending -ю in болею already shows the subject is “I”. So:

• Я болею за их команду.
• Болею за их команду.

Both are correct.

Including Я often adds emphasis or contrast (“I support their team”, as opposed to someone else). In casual speech, dropping я is very common when the subject is obvious.

Can I change the word order, like Я за их команду болею or За их команду я болею?

Yes. Russian word order is quite flexible. All of these are grammatically correct:

• Я болею за их команду. – neutral, standard order.
• Я за их команду болею. – slight emphasis on “for their team”, often more colloquial or emotional.
• За их команду я болею. – strong emphasis on “for their team (and not for some other)”.

The basic meaning doesn’t change; word order mainly affects which part is emphasized or contrasted.

How do I say this in the past and in the future?

Past tense (change according to your gender):

• Masculine speaker: Я боле́л за их команду. – I supported their team.
• Feminine speaker: Я боле́ла за их команду. – I supported their team.

Future tense:

Since боле́ть is imperfective, you form the future with быть + infinitive:

• Я бу́ду боле́ть за их команду. – I will support / will be supporting their team.

You can add adverbs to clarify time:

• Я всегда́ бу́ду боле́ть за их команду. – I will always support their team.
• Я уже мно́го лет боле́ю за их команду. – I have been supporting their team for many years.

How do I clearly say “I am ill” so it’s not confused with “I support a team”?

To talk about being physically ill, you usually:

1. Name the illness (often with instrumental case):

   • Я боле́ю гриппом. – I have the flu.
   • Я боле́ю просту́дой. – I have a cold.

2. Or use the short adjective болен / больна:

   • Masculine: Я бо́лен. – I am ill.
   • Feminine: Я больна́. – I am ill.

To avoid confusion with “support a team”, don’t use за when you’re talking about sickness. As soon as you say болею за …, Russians will understand it as “root for, support”.

Is there a more neutral verb than болею за to say “I support their team”?

Yes. You can use подде́рживать (to support):

• Я подде́рживаю их команду. – I support their team.

Nuance differences:

• болею за – specifically “root for, cheer for”, strongly associated with sports fans and emotional support.
• подде́рживаю – more general/neutral “support” (can be about a team, a person, a political party, a decision, etc.).

In a sports-fan context, болею за их команду sounds the most natural and idiomatic.