Questions & Answers about Сейчас у меня меньше времени.
Russian usually expresses possession with the construction у + GENITIVE + есть / [something], literally “at/near me (there is) [something]”.
- у меня = “at me / with me”
- So Сейчас у меня меньше времени = “Now, at me there is less time” → “Now I have less time.”
The verb иметь (“to have”) exists, but in everyday speech it’s much less common and often sounds formal, bookish, or bureaucratic in simple “have” sentences.
You would not normally say Сейчас я имею меньше времени in conversational Russian. It’s grammatically possible, but stylistically odd here.
You’re right that the basic “I have X” pattern is:
- У меня есть время. – “I have time.”
However, when you negate or compare the possession, есть is normally dropped:
- У меня нет времени. – I don’t have time.
- У меня мало времени. – I have little time.
- У меня меньше времени. – I have less time.
So:
- У меня есть время. (neutral statement of existence)
- But: У меня меньше времени. (comparative) – no есть
Меньше is the comparative form meaning “less / fewer”. It’s used:
As a comparative of мало (“little, not much”):
- мало времени – little time
- меньше времени – less time
Also as the comparative of малый (“small”) in some contexts, e.g. with countable nouns:
- мало ошибок – few mistakes
- меньше ошибок – fewer mistakes
Important points:
- Russian doesn’t distinguish “less” vs “fewer” like English; меньше covers both.
- It does not change for gender, number, or case when used like this:
- меньше времени, меньше денег, меньше ошибок, меньше людей – same form меньше.
Времени is the genitive singular form of время (“time”).
After words of quantity such as:
- меньше (less/fewer)
- много (a lot of / much / many)
- мало (little / few)
- немного (a bit / some)
the noun is typically in the genitive case:
- меньше времени – less time
- много времени – a lot of time
- мало времени – little time
So the pattern is:
меньше + [GENITIVE]
That’s why время changes to времени.
Yes, in this meaning it’s incorrect.
You need the genitive after меньше, so:
- ✗ Сейчас у меня меньше время. – wrong
- ✓ Сейчас у меня меньше времени. – correct
Think of it as a fixed pattern:
меньше + genitive
больше + genitive
мало / много + genitive
e.g. больше денег, меньше работы, много воды.
Времени is genitive singular of время.
Время is an irregular neuter noun (like имя – имени, пламя – пламени). Its key forms:
- Nominative singular: время – time
- Genitive singular: времени – of time
- Dative singular: времени
- Accusative singular: время
- Prepositional singular: о времени – about time
- Instrumental singular: временем – with/by time
So меньше времени literally is “less of time” → “less time”.
You can change the word order; Russian is flexible. All of these are possible:
- Сейчас у меня меньше времени. – neutral, very natural.
- У меня сейчас меньше времени. – also very common; slight emphasis on “I (as opposed to someone else) now have less time”.
- Сейчас у меня времени меньше. – emphasis on меньше (“the amount is less now”).
- Времени сейчас у меня меньше. – stronger focus on времени as the topic (“As for time, right now I have less”).
For a learner, the first two are the safest and most common.
Both сейчас and теперь can mean “now”, but there’s a nuance:
- сейчас – plain “right now, at this moment,” or just “now” in time.
- теперь – often implies contrast with the past, like “now (as opposed to before)”.
In your sentence, both are possible:
- Сейчас у меня меньше времени. – Right now I have less time.
- Теперь у меня меньше времени. – Now I have less time (than before / than I used to).
Теперь strongly suggests a change of situation compared to earlier.
Сейчас can do that too in context, but is more neutral.
You can add a чем-phrase (like “than”) after меньше времени:
Сейчас у меня меньше времени, чем раньше.
– Now I have less time than before.Сейчас у меня меньше времени, чем было раньше.
– Now I have less time than there was before.Сейчас у меня меньше времени, чем вчера.
– Now I have less time than yesterday.
Often, Russian omits the “than…” part if it’s obvious from context, which is why your original sentence has just меньше времени.
All three talk about not having much time, but with different nuances:
меньше времени – less time (than some reference point)
- comparative: emphasizes decrease or comparison
- Сейчас у меня меньше времени (чем раньше).
мало времени – little time
- no explicit comparison, just “not much”
- Сейчас у меня мало времени. – I have little time right now.
нет времени – no time
- stronger: essentially “I don’t have any time”
- Сейчас у меня нет времени. – I don’t have time right now.
So:
- меньше – less than before / less than expected
- мало – generally little
- нет – (practically) none
IPA (approximate):
- Сейчас – [sʲɪˈt͡ɕas]
- stress on the second syllable: сичас
- у – [u]
- меня – [mʲɪˈnʲa]
- stress on -ня
- меньше – [ˈmʲenʲʂe]
- soft м and н, first syllable stressed
- времени – [ˈvrʲemʲɪnʲɪ]
- stress on вре-, soft вр, and each н is soft
Spoken naturally, it flows as:
сичас у меня меньше времени
with the main stresses on час, ня, мень, вре.