Russian sentence

[pEhrlich]

I'm doing the Russian Rosetta stone, and there is the following sentence to a picture of a boy about to eat a boiled egg:

у него есть яйцо, но он его не ест.
The google translation is a little weird, but I'll post it anyway: it has an egg, but he did not eat. And literally: from him eat egg, but he his not eat..

This makes sense well enough, but I can't figure out why it says "eat" twice. Is that kind of like "he has an egg to eat, but isn't eating it?

[Pollyanna]

pEhrlich, it says "eat" twice probably because есть have different meanings depending on the context. Compare:

Он есть - He exists; He present
Он хочет есть - He wants to eat
У него есть яйцо - He has an egg

У него / неё / них есть construction means he/ she / they have something, own something. It is not about eating
For example: У него есть книга, но он ее не читает. - He has a book, but he don't read it.

So in your case: У него есть яйцо, но он его не ест. - He has an egg, but he don't eat it.
The variant he has an egg to eat, but isn't eating it is also close to the context.

from him eat egg, but he his not eat.. ??? Does it make sense in English?

[Pollyanna]

Opps... He is present must be instead of He present

[russian_guy]

just to clear things up here

есть can mean either eat or to have
у него есть мяч he has a/the ball.
so translating this sentence у него есть яйцо но он его не ест it translates something like
to him there is egg but he it isnt eating
or he has egg but isnt eating it.
the verb есть has different conjugations
я ем
ты ешь
вы едите
мы едим
они едят
он \она ест
this is the forms of to eat
есть meaning to have on the other is something that i believe isn't conjugated as well as you can leave this out so
у него яйцо is the same as у него есть яйцо but the difference is one is more polite than the other
correct me if i'm wrong

[/quote]

[Pollyanna]

russian_guy, you are completely right! well done!