Breakdown of У ребёнка болит живот, и он не спит.
и
and
не
not
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
ребёнок
child
спать
to sleep
живот
stomach, belly
болеть
to hurt, to ache; to be ill
Questions & Answers about У ребёнка болит живот, и он не спит.
Why does the sentence use у ребёнка instead of a possessive word to say 'the child's stomach'?
In Russian, the standard way to say you have an ache or pain is to use the У + Genitive case structure (the same structure used for 'to have'). So instead of saying 'his stomach', Russian literally says 'By the child, the stomach aches.'
The dictionary word for child is ребёнок. Why is the genitive form ребёнка and not 'ребёнока'?
The word ребёнок has a 'fleeting vowel'—the о in the final syllable. When you add grammatical endings to this word to change its case, that о drops out, leaving ребёнка.
Since живот comes after the verb болит, is it the object of the sentence?
No, живот (stomach) is actually the subject of that clause, and it is in the nominative case. Russian word order is flexible, so putting the subject after the verb is very common. The verb болит (hurts) is in the singular form because it matches the singular subject живот.
Why is there a comma before и (and)?
In Russian grammar, you must always put a comma before и when it joins two independent clauses (two separate mini-sentences that each have their own subject and verb). The two clauses connected here are 'the stomach hurts' and 'he is not sleeping.'
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