(no subject)

[tangledweave.livejournal.com]

In my russian class we were discussing the basic "to have" construct in russian a while back. My professor said it was u "object pronoun" yest. However, I've also seen the construct of just "u menya" or "u tebya" without the yest. Does this mean the same thing/ something completely different or is there some subtle distinction?

Comments

[rychean.livejournal.com]

seems is't something different. i can only think of using "u menya" or whoever as place definition. something like "u menya v ofice".

[xantha.livejournal.com]

[I'm using a text-based browser and can't type in cyrillic, so excuse the transliterations, please!]

"yest" loosely translates in some cases to "there exists" or "there is" -- or ownership in terms of 'having.'

In other cases, where the focus is on a property of the object and not the object itself ('does your brother have green eyes?') you don't use 'yest.'

Also, if the object is intangible, you leave out the "yest." For something like "I have a question" you'd say, "u menya vapros" -- no yest.

I generally think of it as tangibles. If it's tangible and the main item I am asking about, I use it. If it's not, I don't.

Anyone else?

[hockeyophile.livejournal.com]

I learned it as making the distinction between whether the existence of the object is in question. I mean, if you say "I have blue eyes," you wouldn't use "jest" because we know that we have eyes! However, if you say "I have a cell phone," you would use "jest." At least, that's how I was taught.

[kibirov.livejournal.com]

Yesss. Funny, I'm Russian native speaker, but I didn't ever think about this explanation :)

The another example - when we are talking about our diseases, we never say "yest'" :)
"У тебя грипп", "у меня ангина", "у него гастрит" etc. I think - the reason is the same... we know that diseases can not exist without us :)

Really interesting point of view, thanks :)

[simonff.livejournal.com]

In spoken language "yest" can be omitted pretty much in any situation. (I am a native speaker.)

[yers.livejournal.com]

never if you want to stress that you actually have something, but that's obvious. otherwise, yes, it's a case where less is more, an unnecessary yest' is worse than an omitted one.

[yers.livejournal.com]

this is actually one of the hardest things to learn in Russian grammar.
I mean, I always know whether or not to use yest', but I can't always tell why.
there is no single rule. there are many.
the two people before me got it right, but you can't go by that alone.
I'm in a hurry now, but I'll be back.

so far, I'd recommend everyone to get specific and rather than trying to work out the general rule, list all the individual rules you can remember. the same goes in Russian: внимание всем, кто собирается написать комментарий – давайте не пытаться объяснить общие принципы, только запутаем человека и сами запутаемся, это на самом деле очень сложный вопрос. лучше наберите как можно больше конкретных примеров, где "есть" нужно, а где нет.

[jumplittlejudit.livejournal.com]

The way I think of it is, the first time something is mentioned you need the "есть." For example, "У тебя есть машина?" "Да, у меня есть машина." Once it is established that there is a машина, however, you can drop the есть. "У тебя старая машина?" for example. Hope this example helps. ~Judith

[simonff.livejournal.com]

Right, this falls under the yers's correction to my post that "есть" is never omitted if it's the purpose of the question. However, in a slightly different setting:

Two friends are planning to go out:
- Хорошо, встречаемся на Пушкинской.
- У тебя машина? (Meaning Ты приедешь на машине? )
- Нет, я на метро.

Colloquial, but acceptable.

[commiegirl.livejournal.com]

Here is an example:

U menya yest mashina = "I have a car" BUT...

U menya mashina = "I have a car", OR I have the car".

Let's say you lend your friend a book and you want to know if she has it with her. You say "U tebya kniga?" -- Do you have the book?

However, let's say you are bored and you want to know if you friend has a book you can read. You can say "U tebya yest kniga?" --Do you have a book?

This is just one aspect of it, but maybe it helps.

[tarakatitsa.livejournal.com]

I remembered a Russian kid's poem by Sergey Mikhalkov. The beginning of it may be in some help.
"- А у нас в квартире газ. А у вас?"
"- А у нас водопровод. Вот."
"- А у нас сегодня кошка
Родила вчера котят
" Котята выросли немножко,
А есть из блюдца не хотят"

In the first 2 lines "у нас" means "у нас есть"
In the 3d line "у нас" means "в нашем доме"
Notice the nonsence "сегодня кошка родила вчера котят".

[stellalunna.livejournal.com]

-У тебя есть эта книга? Do you HAVE THIS book?
-Есть. Yes, I do. (I do have this particular book.)


In an eatery:
-У меня котлеты. I've got rissoles.
-А у меня ростбиф. And I've got roastbeef.

[kruglov.livejournal.com]

"У тебя есть машина?" - "Have you a car? - Is your car exist?" "У тебя Мерседес?" - "Your car is Mercedes?"

[apresdemain.livejournal.com]

If you leave out the есть don't you typically have to decline the object that's possessed into the genitive, though?

[dr-s.livejournal.com]

Not at all. The possessed object changes to genitive only if you negate the sentence, regardless of whether there is "есть" in the original sentence or no. Например:

У меня есть эта книга // У меня нет этой книги
У тебя есть машина // У тебя нет машины

[coraliedeplessy.livejournal.com]

Nice icon