Questions & Answers about У меня столько книг, что я не могу выбрать одну.
Why does Russian say У меня столько книг instead of something like Я имею столько книг?
Russian usually expresses possession with the pattern у + genitive + есть / implied “there is”.
So:
- У меня = at me / in my possession
- У меня столько книг literally means something like There are so many books with me or I have so many books
This is the normal, natural way to say I have in Russian.
The verb иметь does exist and means to have, but in everyday Russian it is much less common than in English for basic possession. Saying Я имею столько книг is grammatical, but it sounds formal, bookish, or unusual in ordinary conversation.
Why is it книг and not книги?
Because столько requires the genitive plural of the noun.
- книга = book
- книги = books / of the book (depending on context)
- книг = of books = genitive plural
After words like:
- много = many / much
- мало = few / little
- сколько = how many / how much
- столько = so many / that many
Russian normally uses the genitive.
So:
- столько книг = so many books
This is very standard Russian grammar.