У белой лошади красивая грива, а её копыта после дождя были мокрыми.

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Breakdown of У белой лошади красивая грива, а её копыта после дождя были мокрыми.

• быть: to be
• красивый: beautiful
• дождь: the rain

Questions & Answers about У белой лошади красивая грива, а её копыта после дождя были мокрыми.

Why does Russian use у белой лошади to mean the white horse has, instead of using a verb like to have?

Russian very often expresses possession with the pattern:

• у + possessor in the genitive + possessed thing

So У белой лошади красивая грива literally means something like At the white horse, there is a beautiful mane.

This is the normal, natural way to say The white horse has a beautiful mane in Russian.

Russian does have иметь (to have), but it is used much less often than English have. In everyday Russian, the у + genitive pattern is usually preferred for simple possession.

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Why are белой and лошади in the forms белой лошади?

Because the preposition у requires the genitive case.

Here the possessor is белая лошадь (white horse). In the sentence, it changes to genitive:

• белая лошадь → nominative
• у белой лошади → genitive after у

The adjective has to agree with the noun, so both words change:

• белая → белой
• лошадь → лошади

So у белой лошади means of the white horse / at the white horse.

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