У меня сильно болит голова.

me

Breakdown of У меня сильно болит голова.

• болеть: to hurt
• голова: the head
• сильно: badly

Questions & Answers about У меня сильно болит голова.

Why does Russian use У меня here instead of a word-for-word equivalent of I have?

Russian often expresses possession with the pattern у + genitive + есть / implied existence, rather than with a verb like to have.

So:

• У меня literally means at me
• In natural English, that becomes I have or my ...

In this sentence, У меня сильно болит голова is literally something like:

• At me, the head hurts badly

But natural English is:

• I have a bad headache
• My head hurts badly

This у меня pattern is extremely common in Russian:

• У меня есть машина. = I have a car.
• У меня болит спина. = My back hurts.

So even though English uses my or I have, Russian often uses у меня.

Why is it меня and not я?