Breakdown of Он страдает, потому что у него болит поясница.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
потому что
because
у
at, by
болеть
to hurt, to ache; to be ill
страдать
to suffer
поясница
lower back
Questions & Answers about Он страдает, потому что у него болит поясница.
Why don't we say его поясница болит for 'his lower back hurts'?
While you could technically say его поясница болит, Russian strongly prefers the у + [Genitive] construction for physical states. It literally translates to 'at him, the lower back aches'. The body part (поясница) is the grammatical subject, and the person experiencing the pain is shown with у него.
Why is there an 'н' in у него? Isn't the genitive of он just его?
Yes, the genitive of он is его. However, as a quick refresher, whenever a third-person pronoun (он, она, оно, они) directly follows a preposition like у, Russian adds an 'н' to the start of it to make it flow better. So у его becomes у него.
What is the verb болит agreeing with in this sentence?
The verb болит agrees with поясница (lower back), which is the grammatical subject and is in the nominative case. Because поясница is singular, we use the singular verb болит. If his legs (plural) were hurting, you would use the plural form болят.
Does the verb страдает specifically mean physical pain?
The verb страдать means 'to suffer' in a broad sense. It can be used for physical pain, illness, or emotional distress. In this sentence, it simply emphasizes how much overall discomfort the backache is causing him.
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