Question 1

Why is the verb болят used here instead of болит?

Accepted Answer

In the Russian physical pain construction, the body part that hurts is actually the grammatical subject of the sentence. Because суставы (joints) is plural, the verb болеть (to hurt) must take the plural form болят. If only one joint were hurting, you would use the singular болит.

Question 2

Why is it у неё with an "н" instead of just у её?

Accepted Answer

Whenever a third-person pronoun (like он, она, оно, or они) comes directly after a preposition, Russian adds an н- to the beginning of it to make it easier to pronounce. So, the genitive form её (her) becomes неё after the preposition у.

Question 3

Болезнь (illness) is feminine, so why does the second half of the sentence use это instead of она?

Accepted Answer

We use the invariable word это when we are introducing, identifying, or defining what something is (meaning "This is a..." or "It is a..."). Even though the noun being identified (болезнь) is feminine, это stays in its neutral form when it acts as this kind of "pointing" word.

Question 4

Since болезнь ends in a soft sign (-ь), how can I tell what gender it is?

Accepted Answer

Nouns ending in a soft sign can be masculine or feminine, so you often just have to memorize their gender. However, you can spot that болезнь is feminine in this sentence because its adjective, хроническая (chronic), has the feminine -ая ending. As a helpful pattern, most Russian nouns ending in -знь (like жизнь - life) are feminine.

У неё болят суставы, потому что это хроническая болезнь.

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