У мене болить повіка.

My eyelid hurts.

Breakdown of У мене болить повіка.

• я: I
• у: in
• боліти: to hurt
• повіка: the eyelid

Questions & Answers about У мене болить повіка.

Why does Ukrainian say у мене instead of using я for I?

Because with pain and many physical states, Ukrainian often uses a construction that is closer to at me than I.

So:

• у мене = literally at me / with me
• болить = hurts
• повіка = eyelid

The idea is not I hurt eyelid, but at me, an eyelid hurts.

This pattern is very common in Ukrainian:

• У мене болить голова. = I have a headache / My head hurts.
• У мене болить спина. = My back hurts.
• У мене болять очі. = My eyes hurt.

So у мене is the normal, natural way to express my ... hurts.

What case is мене in у мене?

Мене is in the genitive case.

That is because the preposition у / в requires a particular case here, and in this expression у мене means at me / with me.

So:

• я = I
• мене = me (genitive/accusative form, depending on context)

In this sentence, it is part of the fixed pattern у мене болить...