Breakdown of У него сильные плечи.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
сильный
strong
плечо
shoulder
Questions & Answers about У него сильные плечи.
Why is there an "н" at the beginning of него?
The word него is the genitive form of он (he). When personal pronouns starting with a vowel (like он, она, они) come directly after a preposition (like у), Russian adds an extra н- to the beginning to make them easier to say together.
Why isn't the word есть (is/has) used here?
When describing someone's physical appearance or body parts (like having strong shoulders or blue eyes), Russian usually leaves out the word есть. You only need есть when you want to emphasize ownership or the existence of an object, like in У него есть машина (He has a car).
Wait, isn't плечо (shoulder) a neuter noun? Why does its plural end in "-и"?
You have a good eye! Neuter nouns usually change their -о ending to -а in the plural (like окно becoming окна). However, parts of the body often have irregular plurals in Russian. плечо is one of these exceptions, and its plural is плечи.
What case is сильные плечи in?
It is in the nominative case (the dictionary form). In the Russian structure for having things (У + someone), the thing being possessed is actually the main subject of the sentence. Literally, this sentence translates to "At him, strong shoulders [are]."
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