Questions & Answers about У нас сегодня большой праздник.
What is the most natural English translation of 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.
What does у нас literally mean, and why is it used instead of мы?
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.
Why is there no verb like есть or быть in the sentence?