Russian cases

Russian Grammar

The Cases of Russian Nouns

1. Nominative case. This is simply the initial form of the word. The nouns in this form are asked “Who?” Or “What?”. In the sentence they are used without an excuse and play the role of the subject. Examples:

   Мальчик/span> вышел на улицу, где гуляла его сестра.

2. Genitive Case associates with the kinship of something - or of someone else. Therefore, the questions that are asked to nouns in this case form sound similarly - “Who?”, “What?”:

   You can also ask semantic questions “Where?” (By the river), “Whose?” (Olga Petrovna), “Where?” (From the city), “When?” (From Friday). In the genitive case, prepositions are either absent or the following of them are used: y, on, s, before, without, from, for, about, near, except, after. Examples:

   Возле подъезда гуляла породистая собака без поводка.

3. Dative Case. The name speaks for itself. Nouns in this case form answer the basic questions “To whom?” Or “What?”: Give (to whom?) The parrot, (what?) To the circle. The semantic questions “Where?” (To the forest), “Where?” (In the field), “When?” (In the evening) can also be used. Dative case is controlled by prepositions: by, to, thanks, according to, contrary. Examples:

   По тропинке спокойным шагом шла девочка.

4. Accusative case. They usually blame someone or something (some circumstance). The speaking name suggests the formulation of case questions “Who?”, “What?”: Blame (whom?) Grandfather, (what?) Evil. It is possible to use the semantic questions “Where?” (On a chair), “When?” (On Tuesday), “Where?” (Through a clearing). Nouns in the accusative case are used with the following prepositions: through, on, under, behind, in, through. Examples:

   Кот запрыгнул на стул и выбежал во двор.

5. The instrumental case. Creates (draw, write, build) people with the help of something or something (pencil, pen, tool). That is, “By whom?” Or “by what?” - case questions asked to nouns in the instrumental case: to create (with what?) Watercolor, (by whom?) Master. Suitable semantic questions are “How?” (Under hypnosis) or “How?”, “When?” (Before dinner), “Where?” (Behind a cupboard). The most commonly used prepositions, etc. Examples:

   Мальчик стоял перед отцом, опустив глаза.

6. Prepositional case. Unlike other cases, it is not used without prepositions - hence the name. The questions determining the case form are “About whom?”, “About what?”: To ask (about whom?) About the son, (about what?) About the book. In addition to them, you can often ask questions “Where?” (In the lake) and “When?” (At lunch). Used prepositions: in, on, about, at. Examples:

   В каком году вы поженились?

Methods for determining the case of a noun

There are 3 main ways to determine the case of a noun:

• Ask a question. This is the most effective way. Each case form has its own questions. After selecting the right questions, it is easy to determine the case: he doesn’t know (who? What?) The girl — Accusative., seated himself in front of the (who? What?) Fence - Instrumental case.
• Use auxiliary words: Nominative - is, Genitive - no, Dative - give, Accusative case - blame, Instrumental case - create, Prepositional - to think.
• Look at the ending. The endings of nouns in different case forms are different. Therefore, they can determine the case.