Breakdown of У Анны есть красивая гитара.
красивый
beautiful
у
at, by
есть
is, there is, to have
Анна
Anna
гитара
guitar
Questions & Answers about У Анны есть красивая гитара.
Why does the sentence use У and есть to say 'Anna has'?
In Russian, you generally don't use a direct verb like 'to have'. Instead, you use a special construction that means 'At [person] there is...'. The word У means 'at' or 'by', and есть means 'is' or 'exists'. So, У Анны есть literally translates to 'At Anna there is'.
Why is her name spelled Анны instead of Анна?
The preposition У requires the noun right after it to be in the Genitive case, which is used here to show possession. Because Анна is a feminine noun ending in -а, you drop the -а and add -ы to form the Genitive case, making it Анны.
Why aren't красивая and гитара also in the Genitive case?
In the 'У ... есть' construction, the thing being owned is actually the subject of the sentence (literally 'A beautiful guitar exists at Anna'). Because it is the subject, красивая гитара stays in its basic dictionary form, which is the Nominative case.
Why does the word for 'beautiful' end in -ая (красивая)?
Adjectives always have to match the gender of the noun they are describing. Гитара (guitar) is a feminine noun because it ends in -а. To match it, the adjective takes the feminine Nominative ending -ая, giving us красивая.
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