Questions & Answers about У кого есть билет на концерт?
Literally, the sentence breaks down like this:
- у – at, by, near (here: with / at someone)
- кого – of whom (genitive of кто – who)
- есть – there is / exists
- билет – ticket
- на концерт – to/for the concert
So a very literal gloss would be:
At whom is there a ticket to the concert?
In natural English, that idea becomes:
Who has a ticket to the concert?
Russian often expresses possession with the structure у + [genitive person] + есть + [thing], literally “at X there is Y,” which corresponds to English “X has Y.”
Кого is the genitive form of кто (who).
The preposition у always requires the genitive case. So:
- кто – nominative (who?)
- кого – genitive (of whom? / whose? / at whom?)
Since the sentence uses у, we must use the genitive:
- у кого – at/with whom
That’s why У кого есть билет…? is correct, and У кто есть билет…? is ungrammatical.
In the structure у + genitive + есть + noun, the noun is in the nominative case and functions as the grammatical subject of the verb есть.
So in:
- У кого есть билет на концерт?
the “logical owner” is expressed by у кого (a kind of adverbial phrase “at whom”), while the subject of the sentence is билет (ticket). Literally:
A ticket (subject) exists (есть) at/with whom (у кого)?
That’s why билет is nominative, not билета.
Russian does have the verb иметь (to have), but:
- It is relatively formal or bookish in most contexts.
- It’s not the normal everyday way to say “have” when talking about possession of concrete objects.
For everyday “have,” Russian prefers the у + genitive + есть construction:
- У меня есть билет. – I have a ticket.
- У кого есть билет? – Who has a ticket?
You could say:
- Кто имеет билет на концерт?
but in everyday speech it sounds unusual, even a bit bureaucratic or official. It’s more natural in legal, technical, or highly formal style.
Есть is the verb “there is / exists”. In this construction it indicates existence / possession:
- У меня есть билет. – There is a ticket at me → I have a ticket.
You can omit есть in some situations:
- У меня билет. – I have a ticket. (more neutral / descriptive)
- У кого билет на концерт? – Who has a ticket to the concert?
Nuance:
- With есть, you slightly emphasize existence / availability:
У кого есть билет на концерт? – Who (actually) has a ticket (i.e., does anyone have one)? - Without есть, you may sound a bit more matter‑of‑fact, focusing on whose it is:
У кого билет на концерт? – Whose is the concert ticket? / Who is the ticket holder?
Both are correct; the difference is subtle and often depends on context and intonation.
Russian does not use an auxiliary like “do/does” for questions. You form a yes/no question mainly with intonation and, optionally, the particle ли.
For example:
- У кого есть билет на концерт? – Who has a ticket to the concert? (wh‑question)
- У кого‑нибудь есть билет на концерт? – Does anyone have a ticket to the concert?
- Есть ли у кого билет на концерт? – Is there anyone who has a ticket to the concert?
Notice that word order is almost the same as in a statement; you mainly raise your intonation, and ли can be inserted after есть for a slightly more formal or careful tone.
Here на means “to” / “for” an event or activity.
In Russian:
- на + accusative is used for going to / tickets for events:
на концерт (to a concert)
на спектакль (to a show)
на лекцию (to a lecture) - в + accusative is more about going into a physical space:
в театр (to/into the theater building)
в школу (to/into school)
So:
- билет на концерт – a ticket for the concert (for that event), not a ticket “into a physical object.”
That’s why на концерт is correct here.
The difference is direction vs. location, and also case:
- на концерт – to the concert (direction, accusative case)
- У кого есть билет на концерт? – Who has a ticket to the concert?
- на концерте – at the concert (location, prepositional case)
- Кто сегодня на концерте? – Who is at the concert today?
So на концерт is about going to / attending the concert;
на концерте is about being at the concert.
You mainly change билет to its plural билеты:
- Singular: У кого есть билет на концерт? – Who has a ticket to the concert?
- Plural: У кого есть билеты на концерт? – Who has tickets to the concert?
Everything else (cases, prepositions, word order) stays the same:
- кого – still genitive after у
- на концерт – still accusative after на
You answer by replacing кого with the appropriate person (in genitive) and keeping the same structure:
- У меня есть билет на концерт. – I have a ticket to the concert.
- У неё есть билет на концерт. – She has a ticket to the concert.
- У Пети есть билет на концерт. – Petya has a ticket to the concert.
If you don’t have a ticket, you usually use нет and change the object to genitive:
- У меня нет билета на концерт. – I don’t have a ticket to the concert.
- У них нет билетов на концерт. – They don’t have tickets to the concert.
Yes, Russian word order is flexible, and both of these are grammatically correct, just with slightly different nuances:
Билет на концерт у кого есть?
- Literally: “The ticket to the concert, who has it?”
- Brings билет на концерт to the front for emphasis (you’re focusing on the ticket itself).
Есть ли у кого билет на концерт?
- Literally: “Is there at someone a ticket to the concert?”
- Sounds a bit more formal or careful, using ли for a yes/no flavor: “Does anyone have a ticket to the concert?”
The neutral, everyday form for a straightforward wh‑question is still:
- У кого есть билет на концерт?
The stress pattern is:
- кого́ – stress on the second syllable: ka‑VO
- биле́т – stress on the second syllable: bee‑LYET
- конце́рт – stress on the second syllable: kan‑TSYERT
So the whole sentence is:
- У кого́ есть биле́т на конце́рт?