Questions & Answers about У неё длинные ноги.
Why is it у неё instead of у её?
In Russian, when a third-person pronoun (like он, она, or они) comes right after a preposition (like у), you have to add the letter н to the beginning of it. So, у + её becomes у неё.
How does у неё literally translate to "she has"?
Russian rarely uses a direct verb for "to have." Instead, it uses the preposition у (meaning "by" or "at") followed by the person in the Genitive case (неё). The thing being possessed is the subject of the sentence. So literally, this means "By her are long legs."
Why is the word есть (is/are) left out of this sentence?
When describing a specific quality of something a person has (like having long legs), Russians usually drop the word есть. You only use есть when you want to emphasize the actual existence or possession of the object, like У неё есть собака (She has a dog).
Why does длинные end in -ые?
Длинные (long) is an adjective describing ноги (legs). Because ноги is plural, the adjective must also take the plural Nominative ending, which for this word is -ые.
Could I just use the verb иметь and say "Она имеет длинные ноги"?
While grammatically understood, it sounds very unnatural. The verb иметь (to have) is mostly reserved for abstract concepts, like having a right, an idea, or an opportunity. For physical features or everyday objects, always use the У... structure.
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