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Having things in the past…

Having things in the past…. есть/был и нет/не было. POSSESSION!. Recall the weird way Russians “have” something: У меня есть машина. Lit. “Near me there is a car.” The subject of the sentence is the thing, the car; есть is the verb, but it’s a peculiar verb, as it doesn’t conjugate. E.g.,

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Having things in the past…

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  1. Having things in the past… есть/был и нет/не было

  2. POSSESSION! • Recall the weird way Russians “have” something: У меня есть машина. Lit. “Near me there is a car.” • The subject of the sentence is the thing, the car; есть is the verb, but it’s a peculiar verb, as it doesn’t conjugate. E.g., У меня есть машины.

  3. And don’t forget… • Есть is also used to express existence of a given thing. E.g., Здесь есть хороший ресторан. • And to deny the existence of something, use the word нет and the gen. case (the case of non-existence!) Здесь нет хорошего ресторана. Genitive!

  4. Had things… • When you want to express the existence (possession) of something in the past, use the correct form of быть in the past: У меня была машина. У меня был() галстук(). У меня было кресло. У меня были родители.

  5. Didn’t have something… • To express non-existence (lack of possession) in the past, you find yourself in a funny situation: There’s no nominative case, and therefore no subject! • NEW RULE: Impersonal (subject-less) sentences are always NEUTER SINGULAR!

  6. Therefore… • Use the FIXED FORM не́ было in the past to indicate non-existence or that you didn’t have something. У меня не́ было друга. Раньше у меня не́ было машины. Раньше здесь не́ было хорошего магазина, а теперь их много! Gen. Case (nonexistence!) Fixed form

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