Questions & Answers about У нас сегодня большой праздник.
The most natural translations are:
- We have a big celebration today.
- It’s a big holiday for us today.
Literally, the sentence is closer to At our place / for us, today [there is] a big holiday, but in English we express this idea with we have or it’s … for us.
У нас literally means at us / with us / by us.
- у = at, by, near
- нас = us (genitive case of мы – we)
Russian often uses the construction у + [person in genitive] to express:
- possession: У меня есть книга – I have a book (literally: at me there is a book)
- something happening in someone’s sphere/space: У нас праздник – We have a celebration / There is a celebration at our place / for us
If you said Мы сегодня большой праздник, it would be ungrammatical, because мы (we) is nominative and does not work with у. You need нас after у.
In Russian, the verb to be (быть) is normally omitted in the present tense in simple sentences like this.
- English: We have a big holiday today.
- Naive literal Russian: У нас сегодня есть большой праздник.
- Natural Russian: У нас сегодня большой праздник.
You only use есть when you really need to emphasize existence or contrast:
- У нас есть праздник, а у них нет. – We do have a holiday, but they don’t.
In your sentence, the existence of the holiday is not being contrasted or questioned; it’s just a statement, so есть is dropped.
Нас is the genitive plural of мы (we).
The preposition у always takes the genitive case:
- у кого? – of whom / at whom?
- у чего? – of what / at what?
So:
- мы (we) → нас (of us / at us)
- у нас – at our place / with us / we have
This у + genitive pattern is very common and worth memorizing:
- у меня – I have / at my place
- у тебя – you have (informal)
- у него / у неё – he/she has
- у нас – we have
- у вас – you have (formal/plural)
- у них – they have
The adjective большой (big) must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun праздник (holiday).
- праздник is masculine singular, nominative.
- The masculine nominative singular form of большой is большой.
Compare:
- большой праздник – big holiday (masculine)
- большая книга – big book (feminine)
- большое окно – big window (neuter)
- большие праздники – big holidays (plural)
So you use большой because it matches the gender and form of праздник.
Праздник is a general word for a festive occasion. Depending on context, it can mean:
- holiday (official or traditional)
- государственный праздник – public/national holiday
- религиозный праздник – religious feast day
- celebration, festivity
- Свадьба – это большой праздник. – A wedding is a big celebration.
It is not the same as:
- вечеринка – a (casual) party
- выходной (день) – a day off
- каникулы – school/university holidays/vacation period
In many contexts, праздник is best translated as holiday or celebration, and which one you choose depends on the specific situation.
It can mean either, depending on context.
Possible readings:
In our family / at our place / in our group we have a big celebration today.
For example, someone’s birthday, a wedding anniversary, a company event, etc.For us (as a country, region, city), today is a big holiday.
For example, a national holiday, a city day, a professional day (Teacher’s Day, etc.).
If you want to emphasize it’s a national holiday, you might specify:
- У нас сегодня большой государственный праздник.
- У нас в стране сегодня большой праздник.
If you want to stress it’s something private:
- У нас в семье сегодня большой праздник.
- У нас дома сегодня большой праздник.
Word by word with stress:
- У нас – [у НАС] – stress on нас
- сегодня – [сегОдня] – stress on ГО (сегОдня)
(phonetically often [сиводнʲa], the д is weak, and the final я is reduced) - большой – [большОй] – stress on шОй
- праздник – [ПрАздник] – stress on ПРАз
So:
У нас сегОдня большОй ПрАздник.
Natural spoken rhythm often puts sentence stress on большОй ПрАздник, since that’s the main information.
Yes, Russian word order is relatively flexible, and all of these are grammatically correct:
У нас сегодня большой праздник.
Neutral; emphasizes that in our sphere today there is a big holiday.Сегодня у нас большой праздник.
Slight extra focus on today; like: Today, we have a big holiday.У нас большой праздник сегодня.
Often used in speech; can sound a bit more emotional or emphatic, like:
We have a big celebration today (with a bit of emphasis on “today” as an afterthought).
The basic meaning is the same; the differences are mostly about nuance and emphasis.
Сегодня большой праздник.
Means: Today is a big holiday.
This sounds like a general statement, as if you are talking about the country or society as a whole, without focusing on any particular group.У нас сегодня большой праздник.
Means: We have a big celebration/holiday today or It’s a big holiday for us today.
This centers the statement on us – our family, our group, our company, our country, etc.
So adding у нас adds the idea “in our world / in our circle / for us specifically.”
Yes, but you need to change both the noun and the adjective to plural:
У нас сегодня много праздников. – We have many holidays today.
(много requires праздников in genitive plural.)У нас сегодня большие праздники. – We have big holidays today.
(большие is plural; праздники is nominative plural.)
Note the adjective agreement:
- singular: большой праздник
- plural: большие праздники
Yes:
У нас сегодня праздник.
Simply: We have a holiday today / It’s a holiday for us today.
No information about how important or big it is.У нас сегодня большой праздник.
Adds the idea of importance or scale:
We have a big/important celebration today.
The adjective большой in this context often implies not only physical size, but significance: a major, special, or important holiday.