Word
У этой старой книги потрёпанная обложка, но страницы чистые.
Meaning
This old book has a worn cover, but the pages are clean.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of У этой старой книги потрёпанная обложка, но страницы чистые.
книга
the book
но
but
старый
old
этот
this
Questions & Answers about У этой старой книги потрёпанная обложка, но страницы чистые.
Why does Russian use у этой старой книги instead of a verb like has?
Russian very often expresses possession with у + genitive.
So instead of saying the book has a cover, Russian commonly says something closer to at the book there is a cover.
- у этой старой книги = this old book has / belonging to this old book
- This pattern is used not only with people, but also with things.
It is one of the most common ways to say have in Russian.
What case is книги, and why does it look like a plural?
Here книги is genitive singular, because it follows у.
The noun книга has these relevant forms:
- nominative singular: книга
- genitive singular: книги
- nominative plural: книги
So yes, книги can mean either:
- of the book (genitive singular), or
- books (nominative plural)
In this sentence, it must be genitive singular because:
- it comes after у, which requires the genitive
- этой старой also agrees with a singular feminine noun here
Why are the words этой and старой in that form?