Questions & Answers about У меня есть время.
Why does this sentence start with У меня instead of Я?
Russian does not have a direct verb for "to have." Instead, you use a construction that literally translates to "By me there is." The preposition У (by/at) requires the word following it to be in the Genitive case. меня is the Genitive form of я (I).
What does the word есть mean here?
есть means "is" or "exists." It is the core of the Russian possession formula. Together, У меня есть literally means "By me there exists..."
Why doesn't the word время change its ending?
In English, "time" is the object you possess. But in the Russian formula "By me exists time," the word время (time) is actually the grammatical subject of the sentence! Because it is the subject, it stays in the Nominative case, which is the basic dictionary form.
Could I change the word order and say У меня время есть?
Yes, Russian word order is flexible. However, У меня есть время is the most neutral and common way to say this. Moving есть to the end places special emphasis on it, which sounds more like "I do have time" (for example, if someone just told you that you were too busy).