Breakdown of У меня слабость, и у меня болит мышца.
и
and
я
I
у
at, by
болеть
to hurt, to ache; to be ill
мышца
muscle
слабость
weakness
Questions & Answers about У меня слабость, и у меня болит мышца.
Why is у меня (literally "at me") used here to mean "my" muscle hurts?
In Russian, physical pain and medical symptoms are expressed using the same grammar as possession. Instead of using a possessive pronoun like "my" (моя), Russians phrase it as "at me, the muscle aches" (у меня болит мышца).
Why is the verb болит singular?
In this construction, the body part is actually the subject of the sentence doing the action (aching). Since мышца (muscle) is singular, the verb is the singular болит. If multiple muscles were hurting, the body part would be plural and so would the verb: у меня болят мышцы.
Do I really need to repeat у меня twice in this sentence?
It is not strictly required—you could easily say У меня слабость и болит мышца—but repeating it is very natural in spoken Russian. It emphasizes that you are experiencing two distinct symptoms, which is a common way to explain how you feel to a doctor.
Слабость ends in a soft sign (-ь). Is there a trick to remembering its gender?
Yes! Слабость is a feminine noun. A very reliable rule in Russian is that abstract nouns ending in the suffix -ость (which often turns adjectives into nouns, like "weak" into "weakness") are always feminine.
Learn У меня слабость, и у меня болит мышца and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free