У меня нет…
-
Step 1 of 4: Introduction
Introduction
The genitive case is one of the most commonly used cases in Russian. It appears in many different situations and is used after a large number of prepositions.
In this lesson, we’ll start breaking it down and learn how masculine nouns change in the genitive case.
У тебя есть?
You’ve probably already learned the construction У меня есть…, which means “I have…”. After есть, we usually use a noun in the nominative case.
У меня́ есть дом.
I have a house.
У меня́ есть каранда́ш.
I have a pencil.
But what happens when you want to say that you don’t have something?
In Russian, we use нет, followed by a noun in the genitive case.
У меня́ нет до́ма.
I don’t have a house.
У меня́ нет карандаша́.
I don’t have a pencil
The basic rule: нет + noun in the genitive case
A little fun fact!
You might not have noticed this, but у меня already contains a genitive form!
The pronoun я (I) changes to меня after у in this construction.
So:
я → у меня — I → at my place / I have…
ты → у тебя — you → at your place / you have…
он → у него — he → at his place / he has…
We’ll explore this construction more in future lessons.
"There is" and "there isn't"
We can use the same pattern to talk about whether someone or something exists or is present.
В Аме́рике есть президе́нт.
There is a president in America.
В А́нглии нет президе́нта.
There is no president in England.
Notice that президе́нт changes to президе́нта after нет.
So, whenever you use нет to say that something is absent or doesn’t exist, the following noun takes the genitive case.
Masculine nouns
Now let’s look at how masculine nouns change.
If a masculine noun ends in a consonant, add -А to form the genitive case.
уче́бник → нет уче́бникА
каранда́ш → нет карандашА́
стол → нет столА́
телефо́н → нет телефо́нА
However, if a masculine noun ends in -Й, change -Й to -Я.
ча́й → нет ча́Я
музе́й → нет музе́Я
Lastly, if a masculine noun ends in -Ь, change -Ь to -Я.
слова́рь → нет словарЯ́
автомоби́лЬ → нет автомоби́лЯ