Word
У бабушки на полке стоит старая ваза из мастерской, а рядом — маленькая рамка с нашим фото.
Meaning
On Grandma’s shelf there is an old vase from the workshop, and next to it a small frame with our photo.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of У бабушки на полке стоит старая ваза из мастерской, а рядом — маленькая рамка с нашим фото.
маленький
small
с
with
стоять
to stand
на
on
Questions & Answers about У бабушки на полке стоит старая ваза из мастерской, а рядом — маленькая рамка с нашим фото.
What does у бабушки mean here? Is it literally by grandmother?
Not literally. In this sentence, у бабушки means something like at grandmother’s place or with grandmother.
Russian often uses у + Genitive to show where something is, especially in the sense of someone’s home, space, or possession. So у бабушки на полке means on the shelf at Grandma’s place.
It does not mean the vase is physically standing next to the grandmother.
Why is бабушки in the Genitive case?
Because the preposition у requires the Genitive.
The base form is бабушка, but after у it becomes у бабушки.
This is a very common pattern:
- у мамы
- у друга
- у учителя
It often expresses:
- location near/at someone
- possession, as in у меня есть...
Why is it на полке, not на полку?