Я спросил, у кого есть мой зонтик.

Because у кого есть мой зонтик is an indirect question embedded inside the main sentence.

• Main clause: Я спросил = I asked
• Embedded question: у кого есть мой зонтик = who has my umbrella

In Russian, subordinate clauses like this are normally separated by a comma.

So:

• Я спросил, у кого есть мой зонтик. = I asked who has my umbrella.

This is different from a direct question such as:

• У кого есть мой зонтик? = Who has my umbrella?

There, no comma is needed because it is just one sentence.

Спросил is the past tense masculine singular form of спросить.

Russian past tense verbs agree with the gender and number of the subject:

• Я спросил = I asked, if the speaker is male
• Я спросила = I asked, if the speaker is female
• Мы спросили = we asked

So the sentence as written suggests that the speaker is male.

Because Russian often expresses possession with у + genitive, literally something like at someone.

So:

• У кого есть мой зонтик? literally means At whom is my umbrella?
• Natural English meaning: Who has my umbrella?

Using just кто would not sound right here, because the idea is not simply who, but with whom / in whose possession the umbrella is.

This is a very common Russian pattern:

• У меня есть книга. = I have a book.
• Literally: At me there is a book.

So у кого есть мой зонтик follows that same logic.

Here кого is the genitive case form of кто after the preposition у.

The preposition у requires the genitive case, so:

• кто → nominative
• кого → genitive

That is why Russian says:

• у кого = at whom / who has

This is not the direct object кого; it is the form required by у.

A few related forms:

• кто = who
• кого = of whom / whom
• кому = to whom
• кем = by/with whom

In this sentence, кого is there because of the grammar of у, not because English happens to use whom.

Yes, in many cases есть can be omitted in modern Russian, especially in present-tense possession sentences.

So both of these are possible:

• Я спросил, у кого есть мой зонтик.
• Я спросил, у кого мой зонтик.

Both can mean I asked who has my umbrella or I asked who my umbrella is with.

The version with есть can sound a bit clearer or more explicit, especially for learners. It emphasizes the existence/possession structure:

• у кого есть... = who has...

Without есть, the sentence is still very natural in conversation.

Not necessarily. It usually means who has it in their possession, not who is the owner.

Since the sentence already says мой зонтик = my umbrella, the owner is the speaker. The question is about who currently has it.

So the meaning is more like:

• Who has my umbrella?
• Who’s got my umbrella?
• Who is my umbrella with?

Russian у кого often points to current possession or location with a person, not ownership in a legal sense.

Grammatically, something like кто имеет мой зонтик is possible, but it is not the normal everyday way to say this.

Russian usually prefers the у + genitive + есть pattern for possession:

• natural: У кого есть мой зонтик?
• less natural in everyday speech: Кто имеет мой зонтик?

The verb иметь exists, but it often sounds more formal, bookish, or unnatural in simple daily contexts.

So for ordinary speech, у кого есть... is the pattern learners should expect.

Russian word order is flexible, but the given order is very natural.

• Я спросил, у кого есть мой зонтик.

This straightforwardly means I asked who has my umbrella.

Possible variations exist, but they can shift emphasis:

• Я спросил, у кого мой зонтик.
• Я спросил, мой зонтик у кого. — possible in special contexts, but marked and less neutral

In neutral speech, the original version is the best choice.

Inside the clause, мой зонтик comes after есть, which is normal in existential/possession constructions.

Because Russian has no articles like a, an, or the.

So зонтик can mean:

• an umbrella
• the umbrella

The exact meaning comes from context.

Here, мой зонтик means my umbrella, and the possessive мой already makes it specific enough. Russian does not need a word corresponding to the.

It is in the nominative case.

That is because in the possession structure у кого есть X, the thing possessed is usually the grammatical subject of есть.

So:

• у кого = with whom / who has
• есть = there is
• мой зонтик = my umbrella

The umbrella is the thing that exists in someone’s possession, so it stays in nominative:

• мой = masculine nominative singular
• зонтик = masculine nominative singular

Yes. Спросил is the perfective past tense of спросить.

Russian aspect matters a lot:

• спрашивал / спрашивала = imperfective, emphasizes process, repetition, or background
• спросил / спросила = perfective, emphasizes a completed act of asking

In this sentence, the speaker means they asked as a completed event, so perfective спросил is the natural choice.

Compare:

• Я спросил, у кого есть мой зонтик. = I asked who has my umbrella.
• Я спрашивал, у кого есть мой зонтик. = I was asking / I asked around who has my umbrella.

No. Even though у can sometimes be translated literally as at or with, here the whole structure means possession.

So у кого есть мой зонтик should be understood as:

• who has my umbrella
• who my umbrella is with

not:

• from whom my umbrella is
• of whom my umbrella is

It is best to learn у кого есть... as one common possession pattern rather than translating each word too literally every time.

If the speaker is female:

• Я спросила, у кого есть мой зонтик.

If you want present tense:

• Я спрашиваю, у кого есть мой зонтик. = I am asking who has my umbrella.
• Я спрашивал / спрашивала, у кого есть мой зонтик. = I was asking / I asked around who has my umbrella.

The embedded clause у кого есть мой зонтик stays the same. The main change is in the verb спросить / спрашивать.