Questions & Answers about У неё красивая улыбка.
Why does the word for "her" start with an "н" (неё) instead of just её?
When third-person pronouns (like он, она, or они) come directly after a preposition, they get an extra н- added to the beginning. Since the preposition у is used here, the Genitive pronoun её becomes неё.
Why is the word есть (is/has) missing from this sentence?
In Russian, the present-tense "to be" verb (есть) is often dropped in "to have" constructions when describing an inherent physical trait or characteristic, like a smile, eyes, or hair. You would use есть if you were emphasizing the possession of an object, like a car.
What case is красивая улыбка in?
It is in the Nominative case (the dictionary form). In the Russian "to have" construction, the person who "has" something takes the preposition у plus the Genitive case, but the thing being possessed is the actual grammatical subject of the sentence, so it stays in the Nominative.
Learn У неё красивая улыбка 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