Breakdown of Где фотография? Её нет в журнале.
где
where / wherever
журнал
magazine
в
in / to (direction)
фотография
photograph
её
her (acc)
нет
there is no / is not present
Questions & Answers about Где фотография? Её нет в журнале.
Why do we use её here instead of она?
Её is the genitive form of она (she/it). Whenever you state that something is missing or not present using the word нет, the missing thing must be in the genitive case. Since we are talking about the missing photograph, we use её.
Doesn't её mean "her"? Why is it translated as "it"?
In Russian, all nouns have a gender. Фотография is a feminine noun because it ends in -я. To replace it with a pronoun, we use the feminine pronoun она (she/it) or its genitive form её. In English we use "it" for objects, but Russian sticks to the grammatical gender of the noun.
Could I just say Она не в журнале without using нет?
Yes, you could! Она не в журнале is grammatically correct and means "It is not in the magazine" (focusing simply on its location). However, using её нет is a very natural and common way for Russians to emphasize that the item is completely absent.
Why is there an -е at the end of журнале?
The basic dictionary word is журнал (magazine). We add an -е to the end because it comes after the preposition в (in) to describe a static location. This is called the prepositional case, which you might remember from earlier lessons.
Learn Где фотография? Её нет в журнале and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free