У меня всего один брат.

I have only one brother.

Breakdown of У меня всего один брат.

• я: I
• брат: the brother
• один: one
• всего: only

Questions & Answers about У меня всего один брат.

What does У меня literally mean, and why is it used to say I have?

Literally, у меня means “at me / by me / with me.”

Russian usually doesn’t use a direct verb like English to have in everyday speech. Instead, it uses the structure:

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

So:

• У меня (есть) брат. → literally “At me (there is) a brother.” → “I have a brother.”
• У Пети (есть) машина. → “Petya has a car.”

This у + genitive construction is the normal, neutral way to express possession in Russian, especially for people and everyday objects.

What grammatical case is меня, and why is that case used here?