All questions on cases. Tricky cases of the Russian language

Term "case" names the grammatical category of inflected words in the Russian language.

In the Russian language there are both mutable and immutable words. For modifiable words belonging to nouns, adjectives, numerals and pronouns, you can specify the form of the word that corresponds to a specific case. Based on this, we can give a general definition of the grammatical category of case:

Here's how Wikipedia defines case:

With the help of forms, words are connected with each other into a specific message and form a complete thought. Compare:

maple, autumn, crimson, window, mine, early.

In early autumn, a maple tree waves at me with its crimson top at my window.

The first line contains the usual list of words that are not related to each other. The second line, by changing the form of words (cases), represents a sentence that contains a message, a complete thought.

In the Russian language, there are six cases, which are presented below in the table with questions and prepositions.

Case table

Cases in Russian (table with questions and endings)

Let's consider the system of cases of a noun, clarifying the definition of case:

Noun cases. Case prepositions

Nominative

Nominative used to name objects. This is the original, initial form of the noun, which answers the questions:

Who? - grandmother, master_, father_;
What? - silence, home_, happiness, joy_.

The nominative case is always used without a preposition and is called the direct case, in contrast to the others, which are called indirect. In the nominative case, the noun acts as the subject of a sentence or the nominal part of the predicate.

My brother is in sixth grade.

Vasya is my younger brother.

Genitive

Genitive whom? what?

there are no (who?) grandmothers, masters, fathers;
no (what?) silence, home, happiness, joy.

All indirect cases (except the prepositional case) can be used both with and without prepositions, for example:

no (what?) at home - stopped at (what?) house.

Prepositions clarify the meaning of cases. Thus, prepositions are used with the genitive case:

from, to, for, because of, at, without, for, around, about, past and etc.

For example:

Dative

Dative noun answers the questions: to whom? what?

I will give (to whom?) grandmother, master, father;
I will give (to what?) silence, home, happiness, joy.

Prepositions are used with the dative case:

to, thanks to, in agreement with, in spite of, in defiance of, towards.

Approach the mother;
act according to the rules;
go towards the wind;
act against fate.

Accusative

Accusative noun answers the questions: whom? What?

I see (who?) my grandmother, my master, my father;
I see (what?) silence, home_, happiness, joy_.

Prepositions are used with nouns in the accusative case:

in, on, for, about, under, through, through, after, including, despite.

Return after a year;
tell about the eagle;
pass through the flames;
step over a step;
get out despiteto the downpour.

Prepositions “in”, “on”, “for”, “under” in the form of the accusative case of a noun, they reveal the focus on the object of action:

Instrumental case

Instrumental case noun answers the questions: by whom? how?

I am proud of (who?) my grandmother, my master, my father;
I admire (what?) the silence, the house, the happiness, the joy.

Prepositions are used with this case:

with, above, behind, under, before, between, between, in connection with, together with, in accordance with;

come with a friend;
soar over the field;
stop in front of the station;
plant behind the house;
act in accordance with the order;
I'm with my brother;
walk between the rows.

Prepositional

Prepositional noun answers the questions: about whom? about what?

care about whom? about my grandmother, about my master, about my father;
I'll tell you what? about silence, about home, about happiness, about joy.

A noun in the prepositional case, as its name says, is used only with prepositions:

Please note that animate nouns answer the questions: Who? whom? to whom? by whom? about whom?

Inanimate nouns answer case questions: What? what? what? how? about what?

Determining noun case

To determine the case of a noun, you need to take the following steps:

first step- find the word to which the given noun refers;
second step- put a question from this word to the noun.

Based on the question and ending, we determine the case of the noun.

I love my grandmother.

I love (who?) grandma (v.p.)

In some cases, prepositions are a means of distinguishing cases, for example:

lean against (what?) the wall - e - d.p.;
hanging on (what?) the wall - e - p.p.;
the tail of (who?) horses - and - r. P.;
ride (whom?) horses -i - p.p.

The case system makes up the declension of the variable parts of speech - nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals. Let's learn about the types of declension of nouns and how to determine the declension.

Russian language lesson in 3rd grade. Noun cases

Note!

Did you know that there are 9 more cases that are not studied at school?

Tables and articles about cases in Russian

Russian grammar is one of the most important parts of the language. Grammar allows us to speak confidently, correct and without errors. Often the speech of people who do not know grammar sounds very funny, because all the words sound ridiculous and incoherent. For example, everyone has heard how some foreigner tries to communicate in Russian. Frankly, they don't succeed and they look ridiculous. In order not to look like them, you need to know grammar.

A noun is one of the most important independent parts of speech, which is practically the most common part of speech. She has such inconsistent signs, as number, case. The case paradigm is change noun depending on the meaning it has in a sentence. In this article you will learn how to determine cases of nouns, what are indirect cases, how to ask questions about them correctly, as well as about the cases themselves and their questions.

The only rule for changing nouns correctly is correct positioning termination due to asked by the question. This is an easy task for native speakers, but foreigners need to remember the endings and identify them correctly.

This is interesting: what kinds of words are homonyms, is it possible to do without them in the Russian language?

There is also 3 types of declination in nouns.

First declension. Creatures name. masculine and feminine endings -a, -ya. For example, a flask, a pig.
Second declension. Creatures name. masculine and neuter with endings -о, -е. For example, a tree, a well.
Third declension. The name of feminine creatures with a zero ending, or ending in -ь. For example, horse, horse.

Changing nouns different declinations.

In Russian there is such a concept as indirect cases– these are all cases except the nominative.

They all have their own meaning:

Determinants

There are many ways to determine the case of a noun. The fastest, easiest and most effective way today is to use qualifiers. Different cases can be determined using the following determiners.

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Declension of nouns, cases of the Russian language, tables

Declension of nouns

Declension is a change in words various parts speech (nouns, adjectives, numerals, pronouns, participles) by cases and numbers. Nouns in Russian have three main types of declension, which are reflected in the table below. If you need numerals, you can read about declension of numerals in another article.

The main types of declension of nouns in Russian

Explanations and examples

Feminine, masculine and common nouns ending in -a/-я nominative case singular: wife, land, servant, youth, bully.

Nouns in -ia (army, Greece) have the ending -i in the dative and prepositional singular cases.

Masculine nouns with a zero ending in the nominative singular and neuter nouns with the ending -о/-е in the nominative singular: law, horse, village, field.

Nouns ending in -i and -i (genius, mood) have the ending -i in the prepositional singular case.

Feminine nouns with a zero ending in the nominative singular: spruce, mouse, daughter, horse, joy.

For nouns ending in the nominative and accusative cases, the singular sibilant is always written at the end soft sign: mouse, daughter.

In the plural, there are practically no differences between types of declension, so we can separately talk about the special declension of plural nouns.

About spelling case endings for nouns, see: Spelling of unstressed endings of nouns.

Cases express the different roles of a noun in a sentence. There are six cases in the Russian language. You can determine the case of a noun in a sentence by the question.

In addition to the main questions, the case of a noun can also be found out by auxiliary questions answered by the circumstances. So, the question is where? assumes the genitive case (from the store, from the camel); question is where? assumes the accusative case (to the forest, to the lecture, to the lesson); question is where? assumes the prepositional case (in the forest, at the lecture, at the lesson).

The following table will present the names of the cases of the Russian language, questions for each case and auxiliary questions. Cases of the Russian language(3rd grade) - table:

The nominative case is called the direct case, and all other cases are called the indirect cases.

Let's summarize the difference in declinations in the following table.

Declension in plural

Variants of endings for the nominative plural of masculine nouns authors/shores

Some masculine nouns in the nominative plural may have the ending -ы (-и) instead of stressed ending-and I). This is first of all:

1) many monosyllabic nouns such as forest - forests, silk - silk, side - sides, eye - eyes, snow - snow, etc.;

2) many two-syllable nouns that have an accent on the first syllable in the singular form, for example: shore - shores, voice - voices, evening - evenings, city - cities, district - districts, skull - skulls, etc.

However, it is impossible to find strict patterns in the distribution of nouns by variant endings, since fluctuations are observed in this part of the language. We list in the table below the most common regulatory options in which errors are possible.

With ending -а(-я)

With ending -ы (-и)

addresses, shores, boards, buffers, banks, centuries (but: forever and ever, forever), bills, monograms, cities, directors, doctors, huntsmen, troughs, pearls, millstones, boats, bells, stern, domes, coachman , islands, vacations, passports, quail, cook, cellar, professor, varieties, haystacks, watchman, tower, black grouse, farm, paramedic, best man, anchor

The following most common nouns allow a double formation of the nominative plural:

Some nouns with different endings in the nominative plural have different meanings. Here are the most common words:

roots (of plants)

sheets (iron, paper)

orders (knightly, monastic)

roots (dried vegetables)

corps (buildings, military units)

camps (military, children's)

leaves (of plants)

furs (cured skins)

orders (insignia)

invoices (documents for payment)

sons (mother)

tones (shades of color)

Variants of genitive plural endings for nouns

In the genitive plural, nouns can have endings — , -ov (-ev), -ey . There are also large fluctuations in this area of the tongue. We present in the table the most common regulatory options in which errors are possible.

with ending -

ending -ov(-ev)

ending -ey

British, Armenians, Bashkirs, Bulgarians, Buryats, Georgians, Ossetians, Romanians, Tatars, Turkmen, Gypsies, Turks;

partisans, soldiers, hussars, dragoons, cuirassiers;

felt boots, boots, stockings, boots, shoulder straps, epaulettes;

ampere, watt, volt, ohm, arshin, micron, hertz, x-ray;

knees, shoulders, numbers, chairs, logs, linens, fibers, ribs, cores, rods, kitchens, poker, shutters (shutter), fables, songs, gossip, domain (blast furnace), cherries, slaughterhouse (slaughterhouse), young ladies, hawthorns , villages, blankets, towels, saucers, waffles, shoes, roofings, shafts, weddings, estates, nannies, affairs;

splashes, trousers, beads, vacations, pasta, money, darkness, stretchers, sleds.

Kirghiz, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Mongols, Tajiks, Yakuts;

dresses, mouths, apprentices, socks;

meters, grams, kilograms, hectares, rails;

oranges, tangerines, tomatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, lemons;

swamps, kopyttsev, troughs, laces, windows;

frosts, clavichords, rags, rags, scum.

guns, joules, candles (but: The game is not worth the candle);

skittles, sakleys, strife, rickshaws, pashas, young men;

everyday life, mites, mangers, yeast, firewood, people, bran, sleighs.

Indeclinable nouns

The divergent nouns include ten neuter nouns in -mya (burden, time, udder, banner, name, flame, tribe, seed, stirrup, crown) and the masculine noun path. They are called heterodeclinable because in the genitive, dative and prepositional cases of the singular they have the ending of nouns of the 3rd declension -i, and in the instrumental - the ending of nouns of the 2nd declension -em/-em.

Nouns ending in -mya have the suffix -en- / -yon- in the genitive, dative, instrumental and prepositional cases of the singular and in all plural cases, and the words seed, stirrup, in addition to this suffix, have the suffix -yan in the genitive plural case - (seeds, stirrups).

We show the changes in differently inflected nouns in the following table.

time, seed, path-

time-a, seed-a, put-i

time-and, seed-and, put-and

times-, seeds-, ways

time-and, seed-and, put-and

time-am, seed-am, put-yam

time, seed, path-

time-a, seed-a, put-i

time, seed, way

times, seeds, ways

about times-and, seeds-and, put-and

about times, seeds, ways

Indeclinable nouns. Gender of indeclinable nouns

In the Russian language there are indeclinable nouns - words that do not change by case. These include foreign language nouns with vowel stems (coat, cafe, taxi, kangaroo, menu, Show, Sochi, Tbilisi), foreign language feminine nouns with a consonant (Miss, Mrs., Madame, George Sand's novel), Russian and Ukrainian surnames with -o and -yh / -ih and -ago (visiting the Dolgikhs, Shevchenko’s poem, read about Zhivago, with Durnovo) and compound words like general store, CSKA, Moscow State University, All-Russian Exhibition Center.

The case of an indeclinable noun is determined by the question and by the inflected words dependent on this noun (if any), for example: Take off (what? - accusative) your coat; You will be hot in this (which? in what? - prepositional) coat.

The number of an indeclinable noun is determined by the inflected words dependent on it (if there are any), by the verb (if there is one) or by the context, for example: These (which are the plural) coats are no longer on sale; The coat was (singular) very expensive; Ten coats (plural) were brought to the store.

Indeclinable nouns mainly belong to the neuter gender: popsicle, metro, muffler, cocoa, menu, taxi, sometimes to the masculine gender: coffee, penalty. The gender of many of these nouns can be determined by the following features:

1) the gender of the designated person or animal (for animate nouns): rich / rich rentier, old / old kangaroo;

2) generic (general) concept: wide avenue (avenue is a type of street), delicious kohlrabi (kohlrabi is a type of cabbage), sunny Sukhumi (Sukhumi is a city);

3) the main word underlying the phrase, from which the compound word was formed: a wonderful Youth Theater (theater for young spectators), a new hydroelectric power station (hydroelectric power station).

Degrees of comparison of qualitative adjectives

In accordance with your general meaning qualitative adjectives have two degrees of comparison, showing differences in the degree of manifestation of the trait - comparative and superlative.

The comparative degree denotes a greater manifestation of a characteristic in one object than in another, for example: This cake is sweeter than the cake (sweeter than the cake). The comparative degree can be simple or compound.

The simple comparative degree is formed from adjectives using the suffixes -ee(s), -e, -she. Before the suffix -e there is always an alternation of base consonants.

beautiful - beautiful-her (beautiful-her)

wise - wise-ee (wise-ey)

Adjectives in the form of the simple comparative degree do not change either by gender, or by case, or by number. In a sentence they are most often predicates, rarely - definitions, for example:

This city is more beautiful than our native one (predicate).

Let's find a more beautiful place (definition).

The compound comparative degree is formed by adding the words more or less to the adjective.

sweet - more (less) sweet

low - more (less) low

The second word in the form of the compound comparative degree changes according to gender, case and number. In a sentence, adjectives in this form can be both predicates and modifiers, for example:

The weather today is warmer than a week ago (predicate).

Let's bathe him in more warm water(definition).

The comparative degree of adjectives cannot be formed immediately in a simple and compound way. Forms like sweeter, less lower are erroneous: it should be either sweeter, less low, or sweeter, lower.

The superlative degree denotes the superiority of a given subject compared to others on some basis, for example: Everest - the tallest top in the world. The superlative degree, like the comparative degree, can be simple or compound.

The simple superlative degree is formed from adjectives using the suffix -eysh- (-aysh-).

Adjectives in the simple superlative form vary by gender, case and number. In a sentence they can be both definitions and predicates, for example:

Everest - highest peak in the world (definition).

This crater is the deepest (predicate).

The compound superlative is formed in two ways.

1. The words most, most, least are added to the adjective, for example: beautiful - the most beautiful, the most beautiful, the least beautiful.

In the form of a compound superlative degree with the word most, both words change by gender, case and number, and with the words most and least - only the adjective.

In a sentence, these forms can be both definitions and predicates.

We have come to the very beautiful park(definition).

This park is the most beautiful (predicate).

2. The word all is added to the comparative degree of the adjective if there is a comparison with inanimate objects and phenomena, and the word all if there is a comparison with living objects or phenomena or if one of the objects is compared with all.

This house is the tallest in the area.

This house is taller than all the houses in the area.

This boy is taller than everyone else in school.

These forms do not change. In a sentence they are predicates.

The superlative degree of adjectives cannot be formed immediately in a simple and compound way. Forms like the highest, the deepest are erroneous: one must either be the highest, the deepest, or the highest, the deepest.

How to distinguish between simple comparative degree and composite superlative degree adjectives, adverbs and state category words

Russian case endings rules

The pronoun YOU can be used not only in the plural. The same pronoun is used as a polite form of address to to a stranger or to an older person.

PROFESSIONS. Formation of feminine nouns

From masculine nouns denoting a profession, using the suffix “-K-” you can form feminine nouns denoting female persons. Of course, the word also takes on a feminine ending.

He is a student. - She is a student.

He's a journalist. - She's a journalist.

But in the Russian language there is a group of words denoting a profession, the form of which does not change depending on the gender of the person. For example:

He is a manager. - She's a manager.

He is an engineer. - She is an engineer.

He is a doctor. - She is a doctor.

He is a musician. - She is a musician.

Expressing negation in Russian.

If the answer is negative to a question without a special question word in Russian, you need to use TWO words: “NO” and “NOT”. First you need to say “NO”, and then repeat the particle “NOT” immediately before the negation.

For example: THIS KEY? NO, THIS NOT KEY.

In Question and Answer important role intonation plays. In the question, you focus on the word that is most important to you - the intonation also increases on this word.

When answering, the negative particle “not” and the next word are pronounced together as one phonetic word. There is usually no emphasis on “not”.

Depending on the meaning of the question, “not” may appear before:

Noun: Is this a table? - No, Not table. Adverb: Is the house there? - No, Not there. Verb: Do you know? - No, Not I know. Adjective: Is the house big? - No, Not big.

Pronouns

DESIGNATION OF NATIONALITY IN THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

The Russian language has special words to denote nationality. To denote the nationalities of male and female persons, there are different nouns, respectively, masculine and feminine. There is a special plural form to refer to several people of the same nationality.

Look at the table: masculine nouns are usually formed using suffixes -ets (Canada ec ), -an+-ets (Americas ancestor ), less commonly using the suffix anin (English anin ). Some masculine nouns have special forms: French bonds , Turkish, Greek The exception is the form Russian (Russian, Russians). Russian - it is the form of an adjective, not a noun.

Feminine nouns usually end in -ka (Canada ka ), -anka (Americas anka ) or -Yanka (whale Yankee ), however there are exceptions: French wifey .

The plural is formed according to the rules for forming the plural of nouns.

If a masculine noun ends in -ets (Canada ec ) or -anets (Americas ancestor ), then the corresponding plural noun will end in -tsy (Canada tsy ) or -antsy (Americas ants ). Plural of nouns like Frenchman, Greek is formed by general rule by adding the ending -s or -And: Frenchman s , Greek And . Pay attention to the form tour OK – Turk And . Masculine nouns have a special plural form - anin: plural forms end in -but not: English anin – English but not .

As you noticed, in the Russian language there are many ways to form forms of nouns denoting nationalities. The most important thing to remember is that to denote a person’s nationality, it is not an adjective that is used, but a special noun. Special forms of nouns denoting nationalities should be learned by heart.

When we want to characterize an action or describe a state, we usually use adverbs. An adverb is a part of speech in Russian that never changes its form.

When we talk about Where an action took place, we use adverbs that answer the question Where? . These are adverbs of place.

Number on right.
The elevator is there left.
Restaurant at the bottom.

When we want to say When the action took place, then we use adverbs that answer the question When? . These are adverbs of time.

Breakfast in the morning, dinner during the day, dinner In the evening.

When we want to talk about what quality there was an action or state, then we use adverbs that answer the question How? . These are adverbs of manner.

In summer hot,winter Cold.
This Fine.
At the restaurant very expensive.

Adverbs are most often used with verbs denoting a state or action, with adjectives and other adverbs. An adverb is placed before these words and denotes the degree of intensity of an action, the intensity of a state, or the degree of quality.

Adverbs are also found in sentences with constructions containing the word THIS

When we want to describe the state of the world, nature around us, we use impersonal offers(where there is no active subject) with adverbs. In such sentences there is always an indication of time or place. Usually at the beginning of such a sentence there is information about Where or When an event takes place, at the end - information about what its quality is - a question How.

A peculiarity of the Russian language, compared to most European ones, is that in the structure of sentences describing the state of the world around, the verb is not used in the present tense be . In the past and future tenses, the corresponding forms of this verb are necessarily present:

Remember! Usually the most important (new) information is placed at the end of the sentence, compare:

Breakfast in the morning (not during the day or in the evening).
In the morning breakfast (not lunch or dinner).

Plural nouns (continued)

Masculine nouns that end in -g, -k, -kh, -zh, -sh, -ch, -sch, and feminine nouns that end in -ga, -ka, -kha, -zha, -sha , -cha, -sha, form the plural using the letter I:

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Case is a form of formation and function of a word, endowing words with certain syntactic roles in a sentence, a connecting link between in separate parts sentence speeches. Another definition of case is the declension of words, parts of speech, characterized by a change in their endings.

Perfect mastery of the ability to inflect different parts of speech according to cases is distinctive feature a literate, educated person. Often school program, which explains in detail the cases of the Russian language, is forgotten after a few years, which leads to gross errors in drawing up the correct sentence structure, causing the members of the sentence to become inconsistent with each other.

An example of an incorrect declension of a word

To understand what we are talking about, it is necessary to consider an example showing the incorrect use of the case form of the word.

The apples were so beautiful that I wanted to eat them right away. Their shiny red skin hid the juicy flesh, promising a truly amazing taste pleasure.

There is an error in the second sentence, indicating that the cases of nouns in the Russian language have been safely forgotten, so the word “vkusa” has the wrong declension.

The correct option would be to write the sentence as follows:

Their shiny red skin hid the juicy flesh, promising a truly amazing pleasure of (what?) taste.

As many cases as there are in the Russian language, there are as many forms of changing the endings of words, which determine the correct use of not only the case form, but also number and gender.

I wonder what percentage of adults not involved in writing, editorial, educational or scientific activities remember how many cases there are in the Russian language?

The disappointing results of the Total Dictation held this year leave much to be desired, showing the insufficient level of literacy of the majority of the population. Only 2% of all participants wrote it without a single mistake, receiving a well-deserved “A”.

The largest number of errors were identified in the placement of punctuation marks, and not in the correct spelling of words, which makes the results not so disastrous. People don’t have any particular problems with spelling words correctly.

And for the correct declension of them in a sentence, it is worth remembering the names of the cases, as well as what questions the word answers in each specific case form. By the way, the number of cases in the Russian language is six.

Brief description of cases

The nominative case most often characterizes the subject or other main parts of a sentence. It is the only one that is always used without preposition.

The genitive case characterizes belonging or kinship, sometimes other relationships.

The dative case defines a point symbolizing the end of an action.

The accusative case is a designation of the direct object of the action.

The instrumental case denotes the instrument with which the action is performed.

The prepositional case is used only with prepositions, denotes the place of action or indicates an object. Some linguists tend to divide the prepositional case into two types:

explanatory, answering the questions “about whom?”, “about what?” (characterizing the subject of mental activity, story, narration);
local, answering the question “where?” (directly the area or hour of the action taking place).

But in modern educational science nevertheless, it is customary to distinguish six main cases.

There are cases of Russian adjectives and nouns. Declension of words is used for both singular and plural.

Cases of Russian nouns

A noun is a part of speech that denotes the name of objects, acting in a sentence as a subject or object, answering the question “who?” or “what?”

The variety of ways to inflect words makes the multifaceted and rich Russian language difficult for foreigners to understand. The cases of nouns inflect the word, changing its ending.

Case forms of nouns can change endings, answering the questions:

regarding animate subjects - “whom?”, “to whom?”;
inanimate objects - “what?”, “what?”.

Cases of nouns with prepositions

Cases	Questions	Examples of changing endings	Prepositions
Nominative		Boy(), ball()
Genitive	Whom? What?	Boy(s), ball(s)
Dative	To whom? Why?	Boy(s), ball(s)
Accusative	Whom? What?	Boy(s), ball()	On, for, through, about
Instrumental		Boy(s), ball(s)	For, under, over, before, with
Prepositional	About whom? About what?	Boy(s), ball(s)	Oh, on, in, about, at, about

Indeclinable nouns

There are nouns that are used in any case without declension of endings and do not form a plural. These are the words:

kangaroos, taxis, subways, flamingos;
some proper names of foreign origin (Dante, Oslo, Shaw, Dumas);
common foreign nouns (madam, missus, mademoiselle);
Russian and Ukrainian surnames (Dolgikh, Sedykh, Grishchenko, Stetsko);
complex abbreviations (USA, USSR, FBI);
surnames of women denoting male objects (Alice Zhuk, Maria Krol).

Changing adjectives

Adjectives are an independent part of speech, denoting the signs and characteristics of an object, answering the questions “which?”, “which?”, “which?”. In a sentence it acts as a definition, sometimes a predicate.

Just like a noun, it is declined according to cases by changing the endings. Examples are given in the table.

Cases of adjectives with prepositions

Cases	Questions		Prepositions
Nominative
Genitive	Whom? What?	Good	From, without, at, to, near, for, around
Dative	To whom? Why?	Good
Accusative	Whom? What?	Good	On, for, through, about
Instrumental			For, under, over, before, with
Prepositional	About whom? About what?		Oh, on, in, about, at, about

Indeclinable adjectives

Cases of the Russian language are capable of changing all adjectives, if they are not presented in a short form, answering the question “what?” These adjectives in a sentence act as a predicate and are not inflected. For example: He is smart.

Plural cases

Nouns and adjectives can be singular or plural, which also reflects the cases of the Russian language.

The plural is formed by changing the ending, declension of words depending on the question answered by the case form, with or without the same prepositions.

Plural cases with prepositions

Cases	Questions	Examples of changing the endings of nouns	Examples of changing the endings of adjectives	Prepositions
Nominative		Boy(s), ball(s)	Good, red
Genitive	Whom? What?	Boy(s), ball(s)	Good, red	From, without, at, to, near, for, around
Dative	To whom? Why?	Boy(s), ball(s)	Good, red
Accusative	Whom? What?	Boy(s), ball(s)	Good, red	On, for, through, about
Instrumental		Boy(s), ball(s)	Good, red	For, under, over, before, with
Prepositional	About whom? About what?	Boy(s), ball(s)	Good, red	Oh, on, in, about, at, about

Features of the genitive and accusative cases

For some people, two cases with seemingly identical questions that are answered by the inflected word cause difficulty and some confusion: the genitive case and the question “whom?”, and the accusative case with the question “whom?”.

For ease of understanding, you should remember that in the genitive case the inflected word answers the following questions:

there was no “who?” at the party. (Paul), “what?” (champagne);
there was no “who?” in the store. (seller), “what?” (of bread);
there was no “who?” in the prison cell. (prisoner), “what?” (beds).

That is, the case indicates the ownership of the object, placing emphasis on the event itself, and not on the object.

In the accusative case, the same phrases would sound like this:

"Who?" was brought to the party. (Paul), “what?” (champagne);
“Who?” was not brought to the store. (seller) “what?” (bread);
They didn’t find “who?” in the prison cell. (prisoner) “what?” (bed).

The case indicates directly the object around which the action is performed.

The ability to correctly inflect various parts of speech by case, number, gender is a distinctive feature of an intelligent, literate person who highly values the Russian language and its basic rules. The desire to learn, repeat and improve knowledge is a distinctive feature of a highly intelligent person capable of self-organization.

Study of cases and their differences.

Russian language is considered one of the most complex languages peace. Of course, it’s hard for anyone to learn a non-native vocabulary. But precisely because of the transformation of words into cases, the Slavic dialect becomes too difficult to understand. And many speakers of their native dialect are often confused about this issue, so next we will try to figure it out.

Changing nouns by case: what is it called?

Changing nouns by case - called declination.

Declension- this is our transformation of words at the end. And it is necessary so that the words are properly fastened together. This is how statements in the Russian lexicon are obtained.

Noun- this is the component of the phrase that implies the subject. Both living and non-living. Therefore, it gives answers to the questions posed: who? And what?

Covers very broad concepts:

name of items(chair, knife, book)
designation of persons(woman, baby, vegetarian)
naming living things(dolphin, cat, amoeba)
name of substances(coffee, gelatin, starch)
terms various factors and cases(fire, intermission, correspondence)
designation of all stays, actions and properties(tearfulness, optimism, running)

There are six different cases:

nominative
genitive
dative
accusative
instrumental
prepositional

Cases of nouns in Russian: table with questions, prepositions and auxiliary words in the singular

To perceive and quickly assimilate information, tables are often used. They do a great job of showing what questions are used.

First declension- nouns of feminine and masculine gender, the ending of which is - a, i
Second declension- masculine nouns without an ending and ending with a soft sign, neuter nouns with the ending - o, e
Third declension- these are feminine words that end with a soft sign

In the plural, for better understanding, a table is used, which differs, however, only in the ending.

Incorrect use of cases: what type of error?

It seems that you look at the tables and examples, and everything becomes clear. And you think, what’s so complicated about that? But in reality it turns out that many people make mistakes. Despite the fact that they know the material. And, as a rule, these are very common mistakes that require special attention.

Highlight 2 main mistakes, which are connected:

with incorrect definition of noun declension
with inappropriate use of prepositions

Prepositions require special attention:

thanks to
according to
contrary to
like
contrary to
across

IMPORTANT: These prepositions are used in the dative case.

For example, maneuver according to (what?) law. Or, thanks to (what?) friendship with the Fedorov family.

It is also worth highlighting a number of other statements that often used in the erroneous case:

In view. The current preposition is used only in the genitive case. For example, due to excess (what?) money.
A statement like "together with" requires the instrumental case, since it has the weight of joint action. For example, playing with (who?) my nephew.
Also, a pretext "along with" also asks for the instrumental case. For example, along with other (what?) things.
But after the expression "By" the adverb requests the prepositional case. If there is a meaning "after something". For example, upon completion of the contract.

How to distinguish the nominative case from the accusative case?

Every student faces these questions. And adults often face similar choices. And it is not surprising that these aspects are often confused. After all, the questions are of the same type and graduation inanimate words the same ones, but here endings of animate nouns totally different.

How the nominative case differs from the accusative case: instructions.

Of course, the question is raised.
There was already a reminder in the table above that the nominative is guided by questions Who? What?(How main member offers). And the accusative - (I see) whom? What?(minor part of the sentence).
And there is a little trick. Because the word in the nominative case will always be main member in a sentence, then we determine the main members of the sentence - the subject and the predicate.
If our word is not the main member of the sentence, therefore, it is in the accusative case and will be a minor member of the sentence.
Another technique: pose a question to the word being tested in an animated form. For example: Who? parrot (subject in the nominative case) pecks What?(whom?) grain (minor part of the sentence, accusative case).
Also, a significant role is played by the preposition with which the independent part of speech is associated (or not). In the first variant (nominative case), the noun is always used without pretext. But in the second (accusative case), on the contrary, more often with it ( in, on, for, through and others).
It will also help to identify the case ending. The table above has already mentioned what endings each case has.

How to distinguish the accusative case from the genitive case?

The most important help is the question you need to ask yourself in your mind. The genitive case, as we know, responds to questions whom or what No? But the accusative case is - see who? I hear what? Question whom? the same in both cases.

Read the instructions below.

Mentally replace the animate object with an inanimate one.
The question approaches the inanimate in the genitive case: what isn't there? But in the accusative, an inanimate object reacts to the question What do I see and hear?
Example: I caught ( whom?) butterfly. We pose an inanimate question. I caught ( What?) butterfly. Question what? doesn't fit. So this is the accusative case.

By the way, in genitive case will mean attachment to someone or something. We bought a suitcase for ( what?) travel (genitive). The bedside table is made ( Of what?) made of wood (genitive). Also point to a particle of something. A flower is a part of (what?) a plant (genitive). Or is it going comparison of objects. Smartphone is better ( what?) push-button telephone (genitive).
It is also important that in the genitive case the verb will be with negative particle. In the shop Not was ( what?) sour cream (genitive).
But in accusative case has spacious place or intermediate touching. Define ( What?) weather for tomorrow (accusative). And also, the effect transfers entirely to the object. For example, I closed ( What?) door (accusative). Drank (what?) milk (accusative). Or it will express desire and intention. I want to eat ( What?) apple.

Indeclinable nouns: list

It seems that all the nuances were considered, and a little clarification began. But it was not there! The Russian language has come up with some more traps - these are nouns that are not declined. And this is where foreigners get shocked.

To put it very briefly, these are foreign words (almost). But to make it a little clearer, below is a list.

Nouns of foreign origin (proper and common nouns), the endings of which are -о, -е, -у, -у, -и, -а:
- highway
- interview
- flamingo
Again words of foreign origin. But! Feminine and consonant ending:
- madam
- Carmen
Surnames. Russian and Ukrainian, the ending of which ends in –о and –ы, theirs:
- Ivanchenko
- Korolenko
- Sedykh, etc.
Well, of course abbreviations and shortened words:

Declension of nouns by case: example

Rules are rules, but with an example it is much easier to understand. To make it easier visually, we will also resort to using a table.

How to quickly learn cases and their questions?

In principle, there is nothing complicated. If you carefully understand and understand. And it’s hard not only for visitors from other countries, but also for our children. Therefore, in order for information to be absorbed faster, they have come up with a lot of things. And here we are school years taught, put a book under the pillow. And, most importantly, it worked! I read it before going to bed, slept all night on the book and already remembered everything.

Of course, many teachers resort to rhymes or games. But parents should also help their children in this matter.
First of all, you need to remember how many cases there are. There are only 6 of them.
And then, on the most ordinary and everyday examples explain to the child what questions the noun answers. This means that cases are easier to determine.
The most important thing is practice! They took the child from educational institution and go on the bus. Forward! Practice the words you observe. At least by bus.
By the way, a small example of a light poem. The kids will like it and it will help educational information learn quickly.

A poem about cases: Ivan gave birth to a girl, ordered her to drag a diaper

All parents can repeat this poem in chorus. After all, he was remembered as “twice two.” And most importantly, it is easy for children to understand.

Ivan (I - nominative)
Gave birth (P - genitive)
Girl, (D - dative)
Velel (B - accusative)
Drag (T - instrumental)
Diaper (P - prepositional)

Video: How easy is it to learn cases? Simple memorization technique

Recently I came across a mention of the fact that in the Russian language there are more cases than the six that we studied at school. I began to dig further and, in general, counted as many as thirteen of them. This allowed me to deeply understand the essence of the concepts of case and declension, and to fall in love with the Russian language even more.

We more or less “know everything” about the six official cases, so I’ll immediately write about what I managed to dig up about the other seven: quantitative-separative, conditional, expectative, locative, vocative, inflective and counting. I will comment on everything without citing sources, because I don’t remember them at all; All this information can be collected bit by bit by feeding Yandex the names of the cases and paying attention to the fact that in the places found they are talking about the Russian language. In all discussions I will use own feeling language, so I can’t promise absolute correctness, but I hope that all this will be interesting to someone. I will be very glad to receive competent comments or simply the opinions of sympathizers.

Quantitative-separating the case is a type of genitive, in the sense that it answers its own questions and indicates some of its functions. Sometimes it can be easily replaced by a genitive, but sometimes it will sound clumsy. For example, should I offer you a cup of (who? what?) tea or (who? what?) tea? Please note that of the classical six cases, the form “tea” falls under the dative case (to whom? what?), but here it answers the question of the genitive (whom? what?). Some will say that the form “tea” sounds somewhat archaic, rustic. Not sure if this is true; I would rather say “tea” than “tea”, or even reformulate the sentence to use the accusative case (“Will you have some tea?”). Here’s another example: “pump up the heat.” Country style? I think no. And the option “set the heat” hurts the ears. More examples: “pour juice”, “speed up”.

Depriving the case is used together with the negation of the verb in phrases like “not to know the truth” (but “to know the truth”), “not to have the right” (but “to have the right”). It cannot be said that in the version with negation we use the genitive case, because in some cases the words remain in the accusative form: “not drive a car” (not cars), “don’t drink vodka” (not vodka). This case arises only if we believe that each function of a noun must correspond to one specific case. Then the deprivative case is a case whose forms can correspond to the forms of the genitive or accusative. Sometimes they are interchangeable, but in some cases it is noticeably more convenient for us to use only one of the two options, which speaks in favor of the emptive case. For example, “not a step back” (implying “not to do”) sounds much more Russian than “not a step back.”

Waiting case is a rather complex phenomenon. We can wait (fear, beware, be embarrassed) for someone or something, that is, it seems that we should use the genitive case with these verbs. However, sometimes this genitive suddenly takes the form of an accusative. For example, we are waiting for (who? what?) a letter, but (who? what?) mom. But on the contrary, “wait for a letter” or “wait for mom” is somehow not in Russian (especially the second one). Of course, if these forms are considered acceptable, then there is no waitative case; it’s just that with the verb wait (and its brothers) you can use both the genitive and accusative cases. However, if these forms are not recognized as acceptable (which I personally am inclined to do), then the expectant case arises, which for some words coincides with the genitive, and for others with the accusative. In this case, we need a criterion for how to inflect a given word.

Let's try to understand the difference between the expressions “wait for a letter” and “wait for mom.” When we are waiting for a letter, we do not expect any activity from the letter. We are not waiting the letter itself, namely letters, delivery of a letter, arrival of a letter, that is, some phenomenon associated with its appearance in our mailbox. Writing plays a passive role here. But when we are waiting for our mother, we are not waiting for “the taxi driver to deliver my mother to our meeting place,” but rather for the mother herself, hoping that she will hurry to arrive on time (and it is quite possible that she will use a taxi). That is, it turns out that if an object expressed by a noun can influence its own appearance, then we wait for it in the form of the accusative case (he will be “guilty” if he is late), and if the object itself cannot do anything, then we We are already waiting in the form of a genitive. Perhaps this has something to do with the concept of animacy? It may well be that this happens; for example, in the accusative case there is also a similar effect - for inanimate objects in the second declension it coincides with the nominative (“sit on a chair”).

Local case is the most understandable of all special cases. It exists, it is used by each of us, its forms are obvious, they cannot be replaced with other words, and therefore it is very strange that it is not included in the school list. The prepositional case has two functions (there are more, but we will ignore this): indicating the object of speech and indicating the place or time of action. For example, you can talk about (who? what?) the square, and you can stand on (who? what?) the square, think about (who? what?) the room and be in (who? what?) the room. The first case is called the “explanatory case”, and the second is called the “local case”. For a square and a room, these forms do not depend on function. But, for example, at the nose, forest, snow, paradise, year - it depends. We're talking about the nose, but the weekend is right around the corner; We think about the year, but birthdays only come once a year. You can't walk in the forest, you can only walk in the forest.

The funny thing is that here the case is controlled not by the preposition, but by the meaning. That is, if we come up with a construction with the preposition “in”, when being in the corresponding place is not meant, we will definitely want to use the explanatory rather than the locative case. For example, “I know a lot about the forest.” If you say “I know a lot about the forest,” then it immediately seems that you only know a lot when you are in the forest, and, moreover, you forgot to say what exactly you know a lot about.

Vocative case is used when referring to the object expressed by a noun. IN different sources Two groups of examples are given. One group includes short forms names used only when addressing (Vasya, Kol, Pet, Len, Ol) and some other words (mom, dad). Another group includes outdated (female) or religious (god, lord) forms of address. I don't like the idea of treating it as a case because I don't think the resulting word is a noun at all. Therefore, by the way, the possessive case in Russian is not a case, since the words “Vasin” or “mother” are not nouns, but adjectives. But what part of speech is “Ol” then? I came across the opinion somewhere that this is an interjection, and, perhaps, I agree with this. Indeed, “Ol” differs from “hey” only in that it is formed from the name “Olya”, but in essence it is just an exclamation aimed at attracting attention.

Transformative the inclusive case is used in phrases like “went to be an astronaut” or “ran for president.” At school we were told that all cases except the nominative are indirect, but this is a simplification; That's not exactly the point of indirection. A word is placed in one of the indirect cases when it is not the subject. IN English language There is only one indirect case, which is why it is sometimes called “indirect”. Its forms differ from direct ones only in a few words (I/me, we/us, they/them, etc.).

If, when analyzing the phrase “he became an astronaut,” we assume that “astronauts” is a plural form, then we need to put this word in the accusative case, and it turns out that “he became (who? what?) astronauts” . But they don’t say that, they say “he became an astronaut.” However, this is not the nominative case for three reasons: 1) “cosmonauts” is preceded by a preposition that the nominative case does not have; 2) the word “cosmonauts” is not a subject, so this case must be indirect; 3) the word “cosmonauts” in this context does not answer questions in the nominative case (who? what?) - you can’t say “who did he go to?”, only “who did he go to?” Consequently, we have the permutative case, which answers the questions of the accusative, but whose form coincides with the form of the nominative in the plural.

Counting case occurs when using some nouns with numerals. For example, we say “for (whom? what?) an hour,” but “three (whom? what?) hours,” that is, we use not the genitive, but a special, counting case. As another example, the noun “step” is called - supposedly, “two steps”. But I think I would say “two steps,” so it’s not clear how correct this example is. An independent group of examples consists of nouns formed from adjectives. In the counting case, they answer the questions of the adjectives from which they come, and in the plural. For example, “there is no (who? what?) workshop,” but “two (what?) workshops.” Let us note that the use of the plural here is not justified by the fact that there are two workshops, because when we have two chairs we say “two chairs” and not “two chairs”; We use the plural only starting with five.

Total. Of all these tricky cases, only local and inflective seem to me to be full-fledged. Waiting also makes some sense, since I don’t like waiting for “weather” by the sea. Quantitative-severative and subtractive are too slippery and can often be replaced by the genitive, so they can be considered simply options, preferable in certain cases. I’m not ready to consider the vocative as a case at all, because, as I already said, it doesn’t seem to me that “uncle” is a noun. Well, as for the counting guy, the devil only knows. The effect with nouns formed from adjectives can be considered simply a glitch of the language, and the example with an hour seems to be only one.

“Ivan gave birth to a girl, ordered him to drag the diaper” - many are familiar with this simple mnemonic hint for remembering the names of cases in the Russian language. The school curriculum includes the study of six main cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental and prepositional.

Not many people know that in fact there are several more cases in our language. Scientists identify 9 more in addition to the existing ones. Many of them are considered outdated, but we habitually use them in modern speech. In this article you will read about the cases you are familiar with, the rules of their use and differences, as well as the others, and find out where they went in the process of language development.

What they teach at school

In modern Russian, scientists distinguish 6 cases. In modern Russian studies, the so-called question method of determining cases has been adopted, in which a question is asked for the required word (who? about whom? what? etc.). Depending on this question, it is determined in which case the noun is used.

This method, although quite simple for a native speaker, is quite controversial. In particular, because it does not allow foreigners learning Russian to easily decline a name by case, for example, since it relies on the metalinguistic ability to pose the right question. A person who is not a native speaker of the language, but only studying it, will not immediately understand why, say, the noun “book” is asked the question “what?”, and not, say, “about what?”. Also, this method will not help distinguish case forms, to which the same questions are asked. Nevertheless, this method is quite acceptable for native schoolchildren.

Case questions. How to determine case using the question method?

There are direct and indirect cases of names. In Russian there is only one direct case - the nominative. Although some philologists also classify the accusative as direct cases. Commonly used theory of language in this moment I haven’t agreed with this yet. Thus, indirect cases are all the rest, from the genitive to the prepositional, as well as obsolete cases.

Nominative case - who? What? - The cat left the room.
Genitive case - (no) whom? (no) what? - primarily determines kinship or affiliation. This is a cat's bowl.
Dative case - (give) to whom? (give) to what? - defines the "recipient" or end point to which the action is directed. Give the cat something to eat.
Accusative case - (blame) whom? (blame) what? - denotes the object with which the action is performed. I'm petting the cat.
Instrumental case - (I create) by whom? (create) with what? - defines the instrument with which the action is performed. The vase was broken by a cat.
Prepositional case - (thinking) about whom? (think about what? - They wrote a book about the cat.

Lost cases

Local case (otherwise called “second prepositional”) - indicates the place where the object is located. For example: (where?) at home, (where?) home. Most nouns have lost this form, or rather, it has merged with the instrumental or prepositional case. But there are also nouns for which this form remains and is used. For example: “in the shadow” /stress on the last syllable/, as opposed to “about the shadow” /stress on the first syllable/.

The vocative case - we know it from words such as “God”, “father”. That is, it is characteristic of Old Russian and biblical texts. IN modern language this form often looks like this: “An, come here!”, or “Mom, dad is calling you.” Interestingly, in many related Slavic languages this form is alive and actively used. For example, in Bulgarian: “mistress, mister”; in Ukrainian: "pan".

The disjunctive (quantitative-separation) case is a type of genitive. “Eat some more of these soft French rolls and drink some tea” - here the names “rolls” and “tea” are used precisely in the disjunctive case. We cannot say “rolls” and “tea”, it would be grammatically incorrect. In the same way: “drink kefir” (not “kefir”), “set pepper” (not “pepper”).

The privative case is one of the varieties of the accusative. It is used exclusively with negation: “not to have the right” (not “right”, as it would be logical to decline this word in the accusative case).

Waiting case - “to wait for a letter”, but “to wait for dad”. Now this case has been lost, and it is believed that nouns in both the genitive (“letters”) and accusative (“dad”) are used with the verb “to wait”, “to expect”.

The inclusive (inclusive) case is now merged with the accusative. But it is still used in such cases: “to take as a husband”, “to become a public figure”, “to be promoted to director”, “to be fit to be a soldier”. That is, this is a form that answers the question “posed” to the accusative case, but coincides with plural nominative

Thus, we see that the standard question method for determining case is not enough, because, for example, for the accusative case there is not a single unique characterizing question; for the prepositional case, the question that characterizes it depends on the preposition before the noun in the sentence, and, for example, for the vocative case there are no questions at all.

Cases and declensions

In Russian, nouns are distinguished by types of declension - there are three of them. You can decline a noun by gender (feminine-male: wolf-wolf), by number (singular-plural: wolf-wolves), by case (wolf-wolf-wolf, etc.).

Nouns of the 1st declension. They include names of the feminine gender, masculine gender and general gender, ending with -а/-я in the nominative (I.p.) singular: wife, young man, servant;
Nouns of the 2nd declension. Includes masculine and neuter names with a zero ending or ending with -о/-е in the singular nominative: soldier, apple, summer, commodity;
Nouns of 3 declensions. Includes feminine names ending in -ь in the singular nominative: daughter, speech, night.

The noun will change cases according to its type of declension. There are tables of case endings for each type of declension.

Cases of other parts of speech

Not only the noun, but also other parts of speech in Russian are declined according to cases. Let's look at them briefly.

Adjective cases

The case of the adjective corresponds to the case of the noun with which it agrees. Adjectives must also answer certain questions:

In the nominative case - “which?”, “whose?”
In the genitive - “what?”, “whose?”
In the dative - “which?”, “whose?”
In the accusative - “what?”, “whose?”
In the instrumental - “what?”, “whose?”
In the prepositional - “which?”, “whose?”

Numerals are also declined according to cases. The rules apply to them the same as to nouns. But there is one mistake that many people make.

It must be borne in mind that when declension of cardinal numerals, all words and parts should be changed difficult words(320 - three hundred and twenty, three hundred and twenty). When declining ordinal numbers, it is enough to change only the last word (1153 - one thousand one hundred and fifty-three, one thousand one hundred and fifty-third).

Pronoun cases

The last part of speech that is declined in Russian is the pronoun. All pronouns are inflected, change in gender and number, agreeing with the noun they define, if it is present or implied.

Not only the Russian language has a complex case system. For example, in Finnish there are 16 cases, in Hungarian - 25 (but there is not a single preposition in it - all prepositions are expressed by case word forms). And in the Tabasaran language there are as many as 44 cases!

Cases in foreign languages

Even in English there is a case system, although we are accustomed to thinking that there are no cases in the English language in the usual sense. However, the British actively use possessive case. It is formed using the ending “-"s": Mommy"s, cat"s, Polly"s. It was once in the Russian language, too, but now it remains only in its adjectival form - mother’s, daughter’s.

And in some languages, for example, in German, there are verb cases. In Russian, verbs are simply used with prepositions.