Questions & Answers about На ужин у нас картошка и котлеты.
Why do we use на ужин instead of для ужина to mean 'for dinner'?
In Russian, when you are talking about what you are eating for a specific meal, you use the preposition на followed by the Accusative case. So 'for dinner' is always на ужин (just like 'for breakfast' is на завтрак). Using для would sound like you are doing a favor for the dinner itself!
Why isn't the word есть (is/are) used after у нас?
We drop the word есть when the focus of the sentence is on what specific things we have, rather than the mere fact that we possess them. Since it's a given that you will eat food for dinner, the new and important information is the menu (картошка и котлеты), so есть is left out.
Why is картошка in the singular form when the English translation says 'potatoes'?
In Russian, картошка is a collective noun. It refers to potatoes as a general foodstuff or crop, very much like how we say 'rice' or 'corn' in English. You use the singular form even when there are multiple potatoes on your plate.
The word котлеты sounds like 'cutlets'. Are they exactly the same thing?
Not quite. While it sounds like 'cutlet', a Russian котлета is usually a pan-fried patty made of minced meat, onions, and breadcrumbs. It is much closer to a rissole, a flat meatball, or a burger patty than a traditional English cutlet, which is typically a whole piece of meat on the bone.