GrammarExistence

To have or not to have - we can cover this with just two little words: есть and нет.

есть: “there is” / “to have”

The present tense of быть (to be) is normally left out. But when you assert that something exists or that someone has something, the leftover form есть appears:

• На столе́ есть кни́га. (There is a book on the table.)
• У меня́ есть маши́на. (I have a car.)
• Здесь есть Wi-Fi? (Is there Wi-Fi here?)

“To have”: у + genitive + есть

Possession is expressed as “by me there is …”: у + owner in the genitive + есть + the thing in the nominative.

It's worth memorizing these phrases as they also take an н- in the third person:

The thing owned stays nominative: У них есть соба́ка. (They have a dog.)

When to drop есть

Use есть only when the point is whether the thing exists. If everyone already knows it exists and you’re just describing it — its quality, colour, size — you leave есть out:

Rule of thumb: “Do you have a car?” → есть. “What’s your car like?” → no есть.

Past and future

For the past you can use был / была́ / бы́ло / бы́ли and for the future бу́дет / бу́дут:

It agrees with the thing that exists (not the owner). кни́га is feminine → была́; вопро́с is masculine → был. For plurals it's бы́ли / бу́дут.

Saying it doesn’t exist: нет + genitive

The negative of existence is not не есть — it’s a special word нет, and the thing that’s missing goes into the genitive. Past and future have their own negatives, both also with the genitive:

A stress quirk: For не было the two words fuse into a single stress-unit [не́-было] with было left unstressed — so it’s не́ было, never не бы́ло. (The same retraction hits the other past forms of быть after не: не́ был, не́ были.)

And this existence не́ было is always neuter, whatever the gender or number of what’s missing: Дете́й не́ было. (There were no children.)

Common mistakes

• Using есть when you’re just describing.
  У меня́ есть но́вая маши́на. (odd if you mean “my car is new”) → У меня́ но́вая маши́на.
• Forgetting the genitive after нет.
  У меня́ нет вре́мя. (wrong) → У меня́ нет вре́мени. (correct)
• Making the past agree with the owner. It agrees with the thing: У меня́ была́ маши́на (маши́на is feminine).
• Dropping the н-. After у it’s него́ / неё / них.

Summary

• есть = “there is / have”, used when the point is that something exists; drop it when merely describing.
• “To have” = у + genitive + есть + nominative: У меня́ есть маши́на.
• Past uses был / была́ / бы́ло / бы́ли, future uses бу́дет / бу́дут.
• Negative of existence: нет + genitive (present), не́ было + gen. (past), не бу́дет + gen. (future).
• Third-person owners take н-: у него́, у неё, у них.