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Kseniia Nazarova
Community Tutor🇷🇺Why do Russians say «ЕСТЬ» when nobody is eating? 😅
Because есть is actually doing two completely different jobs in Russian.
🍔 ЕСТЬ = to eat
Я хочу есть.
→ I want to eat.
Он сейчас ест.
→ He’s eating right now.
Мы будем есть позже.
→ We’ll eat later.
But then you hear:
🐱 У меня есть кот.
→ I have a cat.
📕 На столе есть книга.
→ There’s a book on the table.
⏰ У нас есть время.
→ We have time.
Nobody is eating the cat, the book, or the time. 😂
Here есть means that something exists / is present / is available and it’s also used in the Russian structure for “to have”:
У меня есть… → I have…
У нас есть… → We have…
Здесь есть… → There is / are…
💡 So when you see есть, don’t automatically think about food. Look at the structure and context.
Same word. Completely different meaning. Welcome to Russian. 🇷🇺❤️
Sep 17, 2026 7:01 AM
Kseniia Nazarova
Language Skills
English, Italian, Other, Russian
Learning Language
Other
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