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У нас сегодня большой праздник.

У нас сегодня большой праздник.
Today we have a big celebration.

Breakdown of У нас сегодня большой праздник.

большой
big
мы
we
сегодня
today
праздник
the party
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Questions & Answers about У нас сегодня большой праздник.

Why do you say У нас instead of Мы имеем to mean “we have”?

Russian usually does not use the verb иметь for everyday possession.

Instead, it uses the structure:

  • у + [person in genitive] + (есть) + thing

So:

  • У нас (есть) праздник. – We have a holiday.
  • Literally: “At us (there is) a holiday.”

Мы имеем праздник is grammatically possible, but it sounds:

  • overly formal or bookish
  • and a bit strange for normal speech in this context.

For everyday “have”, use у меня / у тебя / у нас / у вас / у него / у неё / у них + noun, not иметь.

What does у mean in У нас сегодня большой праздник?

The preposition у basically means “by / at / near” in space:

  • у дома – by the house
  • у окна – by the window

With pronouns, у + genitive creates a possessive meaning:

  • у меня – at me → I have
  • у тебя – you have
  • у нас – we have, at our place / for us

So in У нас сегодня большой праздник, у doesn’t mean physical location; it’s part of the standard possessive construction: for us / at our place there is a big holiday today.

Why is there no verb like есть (“there is”) in the sentence?

The full “textbook” pattern is:

  • У нас есть праздник. – We have a holiday.

However, in positive sentences, Russian usually drops есть when it’s obvious that something simply exists or is happening:

  • У нас машина. – We have a car.
  • У нас сегодня большой праздник. – We have a big holiday today.

You normally keep есть if you want 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, есть is just implied: У нас (есть) сегодня большой праздник.

Why is it нас and not мы or нам?

Because the preposition у always takes the genitive case.

The pronoun мы declines like this:

  • Nominative (who?): мы – we
  • Genitive (of whom? after у): нас – of us / at us
  • Dative (to whom?): нам – to us

In У нас сегодня большой праздник:

  • у requires genitive
  • the genitive of мы is нас

So it must be у нас, not у мы or у нам.

What case is праздник, and why?

Праздник is in the nominative singular.

The underlying structure of the sentence is something like:

  • У нас (есть) большой праздник.
  • Literally: At us (there is) a big holiday.

Here, большой праздник is the thing that “exists” in this situation, so it behaves like the subject / predicate noun, which is in the nominative.

Only нас is in the genitive, because it depends on у.
Праздник is not governed by a preposition, so it stays in nominative: (есть) большой праздник.

Why is it большой праздник and not большая or большое?

Adjectives in Russian agree with the noun in:

  • gender
  • number
  • case

The noun праздник is:

  • masculine
  • singular
  • nominative

The masculine nominative singular form of большой is большой:

  • большой праздник – big holiday (masc.)
  • большая книга – big book (fem.)
  • большое окно – big window (neut.)

So большой праздник is correct because праздник is masculine.

Can I change the word order? For example, say Сегодня у нас большой праздник or У нас большой праздник сегодня?

Yes, Russian allows quite flexible word order. All of these are possible:

  1. У нас сегодня большой праздник.
  2. Сегодня у нас большой праздник.
  3. У нас большой праздник сегодня.

They all keep the same basic meaning: We have a big holiday today.

Nuances (very slight, and often just about emphasis):

  • Сегодня у нас большой праздник. – Light emphasis on today (contrast with other days).
  • У нас сегодня большой праздник. – Neutral; perhaps mild emphasis on at our place / for us.
  • У нас большой праздник сегодня. – Can sound like stressing that it’s today that it’s big / happening, often in spoken language.

Grammatically, they’re all fine.

What is the difference between праздник and words like вечеринка or каникулы?

They describe different kinds of “special days / celebrations”:

  • праздник – a holiday / celebration / festive occasion

    • can be public: Новый год (New Year), Рождество (Christmas)
    • or personal: у нас сегодня семейный праздник – we have a family celebration today

  • вечеринка – a party, usually more informal, with friends:

    • Сегодня у нас вечеринка. – We’re having a party today.

  • каникулы – school / university holidays, vacation from studies:

    • У нас каникулы. – We’re on school break / holiday.

So праздник is broader: a special, festive day; not specifically a house party or school vacation.

Can У нас сегодня большой праздник refer to a personal event (like a birthday), or only to an official public holiday?

It can refer to either:

  1. Official / public holiday

    • Today is a big holiday (for the country / region / company).
    • e.g. Independence Day, New Year, etc.

  2. Personal / family event

    • We’re celebrating something big today.
    • e.g. a wedding anniversary, a big birthday, graduation, promotion.

Context will clarify which one is meant.
If you want to make it clearly personal, you can add a bit:

  • У нас сегодня большой семейный праздник. – We have a big family celebration today.
  • У нас сегодня большой праздник – мой день рождения. – We have a big celebration today – my birthday.
How do you pronounce У нас сегодня большой праздник correctly?

Approximate pronunciation with stressed syllables in bold:

  • У нас севодня большой праздник.

Tips:

  • сегодня: pronounced сивОдня (the г is pronounced like в).
  • большой: бальшОй (the ль is soft; stress on -шой).
  • праздник: прАздник (stress on the first syllable; the д is often barely heard: sounds like празник).

All vowels о in unstressed syllables are reduced toward a/ə, but at a beginner level you can just focus on putting the stress in the right place: севОдня – большОй – прАздник.

Can I drop сегодня and just say У нас большой праздник?

Yes.

  • У нас большой праздник. – We have a big holiday / celebration.

Without сегодня, the sentence no longer specifies when. Depending on context, it might mean:

  • We have an important holiday (in general / these days / going on now).
  • It’s a big holiday for us (as a fact).

Adding сегодня pins it specifically to today:

  • У нас сегодня большой праздник. – Today is a big holiday for us / We have a big holiday today.
How would you say “We don’t have any holiday today” using the same pattern?

For negation, Russian uses нет with the genitive case of the thing that is missing:

Pattern:

  • У + [genitive person] + нет + [genitive noun]

So:

  • У нас сегодня нет праздника. – We don’t have a holiday today.

Changes compared to the positive sentence:

  • праздник (nom.) → праздника (gen.) after нет
  • the adjective (if used) would also go to genitive:
    • У нас сегодня нет большого праздника. – We don’t have a big holiday today.
Could I say У нас сегодня важный праздник instead of большой праздник?

Yes, and the nuance changes slightly.

  • большой праздник – literally a big holiday; often feels like:

    • important
    • major
    • possibly with many people, events, or significance

  • важный праздник – an important holiday; focuses more directly on importance / significance, not size or scale.

Both are natural:

  • У нас сегодня большой праздник. – There’s this big celebration going on today.
  • У нас сегодня важный праздник. – Today’s holiday is important (to us / generally).

You can also combine ideas:

  • У нас сегодня очень важный праздник.
  • У нас сегодня большой, важный праздник.