Questions & Answers about У неё длинная шея.
Why is there an н at the beginning of неё?
When the pronouns его, её, and их come directly after a preposition (like у), you must add an н to the beginning for easier pronunciation. So, у её becomes у неё.
Where is the word есть? Doesn't "she has" usually translate to у неё есть?
We usually drop есть when describing physical features or characteristics (like a long neck, blue eyes, or blonde hair). You mainly use есть when you want to emphasize the actual existence or possession of an object, like saying "She has a car" (У неё есть машина).
Why is длинная шея in the nominative (dictionary) case instead of being an object?
The Russian "to have" construction literally translates to "At her, a long neck [is]". The thing being possessed (шея) is actually the grammatical subject of the sentence, so it stays in the nominative case.
Why does the adjective end in -ая here?
The adjective длинная (long) describes шея (neck). Nouns ending in -а or -я are feminine, so the adjective must match it by taking the feminine nominative ending -ая.
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