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Questions & Answers about У мальчика большая голова.
Why is the word есть missing from this sentence?
Normally, the Russian "to have" construction is У + [person] + есть + [object]. However, when describing built-in physical traits, body parts, or specific states (like having a headache), the word есть is dropped. We just say У мальчика большая голова, which literally structures the sentence as "At the boy, a big head."
Why does мальчик (boy) change to мальчика?
The preposition У requires the noun that follows it to be in the Genitive case. For masculine nouns ending in a consonant like мальчик, you form the Genitive case by adding -а to the end.
Мальчик is masculine, so why is the adjective большая (big) in the feminine form?
The adjective большая is describing the head (голова), not the boy. Since голова is a feminine noun, the adjective has to match it. In this Russian "to have" structure, the thing being possessed (the head) is actually the grammatical subject of the sentence, so it is in the standard Nominative case.
Can I change the word order to Большая голова у мальчика?
Yes, because Russian word order is flexible, but it changes the focus of the sentence. The original sentence У мальчика большая голова is the neutral way to state the fact. If you move у мальчика to the end, it emphasizes who has the big head, as if answering the question "Who is the one with the big head?"