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How to use the genitive case to show possession in Russian?

By: Anna Classing Tue Sep 23 2025
Russian
Cases, Nouns

The idea of possession, or ownership, can be expressed in a number of ways in Russian, but the genitive case is involved in most of them. Generally, the owner or possessor will be in the genitive case. For example:

genitive case

кот президента

kot pryeziDYENta

the president’s cat

У президента есть кот.

oo preziDYENta yest kot

The president has a cat.

In this post, we will look at how to use the genitive case in all of these structures in Russian sentences. Keep reading to find out more!

How to translate the possessive -’s into Russian?

To translate a noun phrase with the possessive -’s in English into Russian, you will most often use the genitive case. So in a phrase like “the president’s cat,” the owner is expressed using the genitive case, as are any words that must agree with the owner’s case. For example:

genitive case

кот президента

kot pryeziDYENta

the president’s cat

У первого президента США.

kot PYERvavo preziDYENta sesheA

the first US president’s cat

For a chart of all of the genitive endings in Russian, download our Russian genitive case chart at the bottom of this page!

As you can see, when you form these phrases in Russian, the possessor comes after the thing that is possessed, rather than before it.

possessorpossessed thing

старый дом моих родителей

STAriy dom maEEKH raDEEtilyey

my parents’ old house

The case of the possessed noun is determined by the sentence context. So if “Molly’s car” is the subject, then “car” will be nominative, but if it’s in another position in a sentence, it can come in a different case.

Exception!

If the possessor is a pronoun, you will instead use a word like моя[maYA](my, mine). These words will be in the same case as the possessed item, for example:

nominative caseaccusative case

Моя мама переехала в ваш город.

maYA Mama pyeryeYEkhala v vash GOrad

My mother moved to your city.

To learn more about words like check out our post on Russian possessive words.

Important

You can sometimes also translate a noun with a possessive -’s into Russian using a special type of called a possessive adjective. However, this can only be done if the owner is a single word (with no adjectives etc.) and is expressed using:

  • a name

    Ольгина сумка

    Olgina SOOMka

    Olga’s bag

  • one of a limited list of words for people or animals

    лисий хвост

    LEEsiy khvost

    fox’s tail

Unlike possessors expressed using the genitive case, which are nouns, possessive adjectives are grammatically adjectives, and so they match the case of the owned thing. To learn more, download our Russian possessive adjectives reference sheet, at the bottom of the page.

How to express “of + possessor” in Russian?

In Russian, we translate phrases using “of + possessor” the same way we translate the possessive -’s — by using the genitive case. As we saw above, the “possessor” is marked as genitive. In this case, the possessor is the noun that would normally follow “of” in English.

Here are a few examples.

genitive case

офис президента

Ofis preziDYENta

the office of the president

музей современного искусства

mooZYEY savryeMYEnava isKOOstva

the museum of modern arts

здание парламента

ZDAniye parLAmenta

the building of the Parliament

запах свежих роз

ZApakh SVYEzhukh roz

the smell of fresh roses

стакан тёплого молока

staKAN TYOPlava malaKA

a glass of warm milk

Tip

Notice that “possession” is not always the same thing as ownership. In English we tend to use the “x of y” construction more abstractly, but luckily most phrases you would consider “possessive” in English are also possessive in Russian!

How to say “to have” in Russian?

Although the word иметь[iMYET](to have) does exist in Russian, it is hardly ever used to express possession in speech. Instead, Russians prefer to express ownership using a phrase like у меня есть[oo miNYA yest], which literally means something like “by me there is…”

When using this construction, the possessor will always be in the genitive case, while the thing that is owned is nominative.

У

oo

by

genitive

есть

yest

to be

nominative

У президента есть кот.

oo preziDYENta yest kot

The president has a cat.

So here’s how to express possession when the owner is a pronoun in Russian:

Russian
English

У меня есть…

oo miNYA yest…

I have…

У тебя есть…

oo tiBYA yest…

you (sg.) have…

У вас есть…

oo vas yest…

you (pl. / form.) have…

У нас есть…

oo nas yest…

we have…

У него есть…

oo niVO yest…

he has…

У неё есть…

oo niYO yest…

she has…

У него есть…

oo niVO yest…

it has…

У нихесть…

oo neekh yest…

they have…

When the “owner” is a noun or a noun phrase, you need to change the noun’s endings (as well as the endings of any words that agree with that noun) to make them genitive case:

genitive casenominative case

У моей сестры есть новый Мерседес.

oo maYEY sistRY yest NOviy myersiDEs

My sister has a new Mercedes.

У этих кандидатов есть прекрасные рекомендации.

oo Etikh kandiDAtaf yest priKRASniye rikaminDAtsii

These candidates have wonderful references.

Important

When expressing “have” in the present tense, the verb есть[yest] will it is always have the form есть[yest]. It does not change.

У меня есть друг / подруга / друзья.

oo miNYA yest drook / paDROOga / drooZYA

I have a (male) friend / a (female) friend / friends.

However, in the past and future, the form of есть will reflect the gender and number of the possessed item, which is the noun that follows the verb. This is because the nominative noun is technically the subject of the sentence. Compare:

  • У меня был друг.

    oo miNYA byl drook

    I had a (male) friend.

  • У меня была подруга.

    oo miNYA byLA paDROOga

    I had a (female) friend.

  • У меня были друзья.

    oo miNYA Byli drooZYA

    I had friends.

Here are some examples of how Russians would say “had” or “will have” in colloquial speech:

genitive casenominative case

У моих родителей была мечта жить на море.

oo maEEKH raDEEtilyey byLA myechTA zhit na MOrye

My parents had a dream to live by the sea.

У моего друга скоро будет ребёнок.

oo mayeVO DROOga SKOra BOOdit riBYOnak

My friend is going to have a baby soon.

How to say “doesn’t have” in Russian?

In Russian, we usually express that someone “doesn’t have” something using a similar structure to the one we saw above, except that in these negative sentences you will use the genitive case twice — for both the possessor and the possession.

Of course, you also need to use нет[nyet](to not be) instead of есть[yest](to be), or the past or future forms of it.

У

oo

by

genitive

нет

nyet

to not be

genitive

У президента нет кота.

oo preziDYENta nyet kaTA

The president does not have a cat.

Here are a few more examples of the use of the genitive case in such structures:

genitive case

них нет при себе документов.

oo neekh nyet pri siBYE dakooMYENtaf

They do not have documents with them.

У него никогда не было машины.

oo niVO nikagDA NYE byla maSHEEny

He never had a car.

У пожилых людей раньше не было пенсий.

oo pazhiLYKH lyuDYEY RANshe NYE byla PYENsiy

Elderly people did not have pensions before.

У города не будет больше проблем с мусором.

oo GOrada nye BOOdit BOLshe prabLYEm s MOOsaram

The city will not have problems with garbage anymore.

To sum up

In this post, you have seen that you often need the genitive case in Russian to express possession. Here are the takeaways:

  • When a noun owns or possesses another noun in Russian it will be in the genitive case.

  • To express the possessive -’s or the possessive with “of” in Russian, put the owned thing first and then the possessor in the genitive case.

    genitive case

    сумка моей сестры

    SOOMka maYEY sistRY

    my sister’s bag

    цвет сумки

    tsvyet SOOMki

    the color of the bag

  • To express that someone “has” something, you will usually use a sentence structure which literally translates to “By [possessor] there is a [possession].”

    • In a positive sentence, the possessor is genitive and the possession is nominative:

      genitive casenominative case

      У моей сестры есть синяя сумка.

      oo maYEY sistRY yest SEEnyaya SOOmka

      My sister has a blue bag.

    • In a negative sentence, both the possessor and the possession are genitive:

      genitive case

      У моей сестры нет синей сумки.

      oo maYEY sistRY тнуе SEEney SOOmki

      My sister does not have a blue bag.

Now that you know everything about the use of the genitive case to express possession, you can put all this knowledge into practice with the genitive case of possession in Russian below!

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