Thread: У моего знакомого большой дом.

Everything is confusing to me. Pimsleur program taught that мой знакомый is my friend, есть is has and большой is big and дом is house. Next, when it asked how to say "my friend has a big house" I figured it was мой знакомый есть большой дом. I am unaware of the word имеет. Is that infinitive of есть?

When they said the way you say it is у моего знакомого большой дом nothing made sense.

есть is perplexing, too, with it being that sometimes you don't say it and sometimes you do. У меня есть вино but У меня нет вина. Why not у меня есть нет вина?

To be sure I understand:

Right:
Мой знакомый имеет большой дом
У моего знакомого большой дом

Wrong:
мой знакомый есть большой дом

Originally Posted by ironfist

To be sure I understand:

Right:
Мой знакомый имеет большой дом
У моего знакомого большой дом

Wrong:
мой знакомый есть большой дом

It is because есть is an affirmative state of being (=is), and doesn't inherently indicate possession. The wrong sentence you listed literally means "my friend is big house".

The preposition у is used to mark the possessor. Recall that есть (=is) and нет (=is no[t]) in this context are opposites; there can only be one.

If у A(gen.) есть B, you can sometimes omit есть to reduce emphasis on the possession itself. But if у A(gen.) нет B(gen.), нет cannot be omitted.

У моего знакомого большой дом = (Lit.) At/by my friend (—) big house.

Originally Posted by ironfist

To be sure I understand:

Right:
Мой знакомый имеет большой дом
У моего знакомого большой дом

Wrong:
мой знакомый есть большой дом

If I were you I would avoid using "Мой знакомый имеет большой дом"
It would sound like a marker of native English speaker or a speaker that is influenced by English. This form is very common among Russians that have been living for years abroad.


У моего знакомого есть большой дом. should be used instead.

I found shelesta's point valid as well.

Originally Posted by philippiq

If I were you I would avoid using "Мой знакомый имеет большой дом"
It would sound like a marker of native English speaker or a speaker that is influenced by English.

That would be a classic calque (loan translation). To a Russian speaker's ear it sounds as officialese, something like 'he has a big house in possession' - even more official.
Мой знакомый имеет большой дом - could be used in official contexts, or ironically.