Reviewing Cases

From Russian For Everyone, some Review Exercises for the various cases:

• Prepositional 1
• Prepositional 2
• Prepositional 3
• Prepositional 4
• Accusative 1
• Accusative 2
• Accusative 3
• Genitive 1
• Genitive 2
• Genitive 3
• Dative 1
• Dative 2
• Instrumental 1
• Instrumental 2
• Instrumental 3

Fill Vowels

Fill Vowels are also called Mobile Vowels and Fugitive Vowels. They come and go inside Russian words as they decline or conjugate, so that отец suddenly loses its E and becomes отца, while земля as suddenly gains an E to become земель.

Why? What's going on here?

 It's all explainable - if a bit historical and arcane. And it starts with "The Fall of Jers". (And no, "Jers" isn't a city, which was my first thought on hearing the phrase!)

Until roughly a thousand years ago, the Slavic ancestor of Russian had two more vowels – written with the letters ъ and ь, ‘uh’ and ‘ih’ respectively. These very short vowels, which linguists call ‘jers’, eventually suffered the same fate as the final ‘silent e’ in English words like, well, ‘like’ – they stopped being pronounced. Some of them turned into other vowels (mostly O and E) but some simply dropped out of the word entirely. And the ones that remained ceased being vowels entirely and took up their current role as diacritics.

This process - losing these short vowels - meant that Common Slavic, which, up until then, had ended every syllable with a vowel, now had syllables ending in consonants. It also meant that the CC non-syllabic roots came into being. And that is where fill vowels come into play.

For example, take a word like сънъ. Remembering that the ъ was a vowel, this word would have been pronounced ‘suhnuh’. When jers were lost from a word, if there were more than one, the last one, bearing the least stress, was lost; the preceding one was converted to another vowel. So, сънъ became сoн. But in other cases, there was a ‘real’ vowel at the end – genitive сънa – and so it was the other that was lost: сна.

Similarly дьнь became день* and дьня became дня. While in feminine and neuter nouns – with their strong vowel endings – it’s the genitive plural that changes. For instance, сестъра becomes сестра, while сестър became сестер.

The most common fill vowel is O: Examples: ОКНО – ОКОН; ШУТКА – ШУТОК; ОГОНЬ – ОГНЯ Sometimes the O is a Ё: Examples: ЛЁД – ЛДА; СЕСТРА - СЕСТ ЁР; ПА ЁК – ПАЙКА

The next most common fill vowel is a genuine E: Examples: ЧЕЙ – ЧЬЯ; ДЕНЬ – ДНЯ; ЗЕМЛЯ – ЗЕМЕЛЬ; БЕЙ – БЬЮ

И** is more rarely seen.

In adjectives and nouns, it is used only next to a jot. Examples: ТРЕТИЙ – ТРЕТЬЯ; СОБАЧИЙ – СОБАЧЯ; ЯЙЦА – ЯИЦ

In verbs, И is found in imperfectives formed from prefixed perfectives: Еxamples: СОБРАТЬ – СОБИРАТЬ; УМРЕТЬ – УМИРАТЬ; ПОМНИТЬ – ПОМИНАТЬ.

**Note that in six verb roots the fill vowel is Ы:
З/В: ПРИЗВАТЬ – ПРИЗЫВАТЬ
М/К: ЗАМКНУТЬ – ЗАМЫКАТЬ
Р/В: ПОРВАТЬ – ПОРЫВАТЬ
С/Л: ПОСЛАТЬ – ПОСЫЛАТЬ
С/П: ЗАСПАТЬ – ЗАСЫПАТЬ
Т/К: ЗАТКНУТЬ – ЗАТЫКАТЬ

 * Remember, the Ь here is marking the final H as soft; it's not a vowel.

Nouns: Case: Dative

Dative case denotes (primarily) the indirect object, that is, the recipient or beneficiary of an action.  It answers the questions: кому? чему?  to whom? to what?

Major uses of the dative:

 1. The person being spoken to, the recipient of the speech (for most verbs of speaking. Exception: verbs of asking, which may be thought of as "I asked a question of John").

• Бабушка читала нам сказки = Grandma used to read us fairy tales.
• Что говорил вам преподаватель? = What did the teacher tell you?

2. The recipient of things sent or given, such as letters

• Я хочу купить Тане книгу = I want to buy Tanya a book.
• Я пишу письмо другу = I am writing my friend a letter.
• Она купила подарок сестре = She bought her sister a present.
• Иван даёт цветы Анне = Ivan gives flowers to Anna.

3. With verbs that show something being given or transmitted, including assistance

• Я помогаю Анне = I am helping Anna

3. With various intransitive (reflexive) verbs in -ся, where the accusative cannot be used

• Кате нравится русская музыка = Katya likes Russian music. (Russian music pleases Katya)
• Мне нравится твоё платье = I like your dress.

4. With various modals and other constructions in which the "logical subject" is conceived of as the recipient of outside forces, or as the experiencer of outside conditions

• Нам холодно = We are cold (to us it's cold)
• Мне скучно = I am bored (to me it's boring)
• Джону трудно говорить по-русски, а Тане легко = It's hard for John to speak Russian, but easy for Tanya.
• Маме надо готовить ужин = Mom has to cook dinner.
• Студентам нужно заниматься = Students have to study.

5. To express age ("years to someone/something")

• Мне восемнадцать лет - I am 18 years old (to me there are 18 years) 
• Ивану двадцать три года - Ivan is 23 years old.

6. With a few prepositions, mainly К, which expresses movement towards something, and the very versatile ПО, which has several meanings, including a) movement along, b) simulataneous movement, c) distribution, and d) cause.

• Мы идём к Ивану = We are going to Ivan's.
• Такси подъехало к дому = The taxi pulled up to the house.
• Самолёт летит по небу = A plane is flying across the sky.
• Корабль плывёт по морю = The ship is sailing on the sea.
• Мы встречаемся по средам = We meet Wednesdays.
• Папа дал детям по яблоку = Dad gave the kids an apple apiece.
• Он специалист по металлу = He is a metal specialist.
• Фильм снят по рассказу Чехова = The film is based on a story by Chekhov.
• Заяц съел орех по ошибке = The rabbit ate a nut by mistake.
• Она пропустила лекцию по болезни = She missed class because of illness.

7. There are also some compound or participial prepositions which take dative,благодаря, согласно, вопреки), and навстречу. Note: with these pseudo prepositions, the third-person pronouns do not get their leading В.

• благодаря им = thanks to them
• согласно ему = according to him/it
• вопреки ей = despite it/her

Forming the dative case is straightforward.

Masculine nouns ending in a hard consonant have the ending У. Those ending in a soft consonant (Ь or Й) have the same ending, but it's written Ю (and the Ь or Й is removed: remember - ЬУ and ЙУ are written Ю).

Neuter nouns have the same endings as masculine ones. Hard (ending in O) take У, and soft (ending in E) take Ю.

Feminine nouns have the same endings as they do in Prepositional. So, those ending in A have Е, and those ending in soft signs, or ИЯ, take И and ИИ, as their ending.

 Plural is dead easy. Look at the nominative plural. Anything hard (А Ы) takes AM; anything soft (Я И) takes ЯМ.

Singular:
Иван - Ивану
Игорь - Игорю
музей - музею
кресло - креслу
море - морю
здание - зданию
сестра - сестре
песня - песне
история - истории

 Plural
Иваны - Иванам
Игори - Игорям
музеи - музеям
кресла - креслам
здания - зданиям
моря - морям
сёстры - сестрам
песня - песням
история - историям

Here is a link to examples of Russian prepositions taking the dative

Nouns: Case: Genitive

Genitive case describes (primarily) possession or relationship, often in English expressed with 's or the preposition "of".  It answers the questions: кого? чего?  whom? whose? of what?

 It is also used for other things, mainly:
 1. The “accusative of time” is used, often without a preposition to express duration or frequency.

• Я здесь уже неделю = I've been here (for) a week.
• Раз в год = Once a year

2. The “accusative of motion” is used with в and на to express movement towards (instead of location), “into” and “onto”

• Мы едем в Москву. = We're going to Moscow.
• Мы идëм в музей. = We're going to the museum.

 3. It is used with other prepositions, mainly через to express movement taking place inside a location, “along”, and за to express the figurative movement of swapping or exchanging.

• Мы идëм через лес. = We're walking through the woods.
• Мы идëм через улыцу.  = We're going across the street.
• Спасибо за письмо. = Thanks for the letter.
• Cколько получает писатель за книгу? = How much does the author get for a book?
• Я – за Путина! = I'm for Putin1

Forming the accusative case not terribly tricky, except in the case of animate nouns. (See this post.)

For neuter nouns and inanimate masculine nouns, the accusative is the same as the nominative. (Note: neuter animate nouns are indeclinable; that’s why they don’t have a special case ending. They (preview of coming attractions!) will take animate-type adjective endings.)

Я вижу сад = I see a garden.
Я вижу лес = I see the woods.
Я вижу музей = I see a museum.
Я вижу рубль = I see a ruble.

Feminine and masculine nouns ending in A or Я take У or Ю for their accusative case ending. Those ending in Ь do not change.

Я вижу папу = I see Daddy.
Я вижу улыцу = I see the street.
Я вижу армию = I see an army.
Я вижу мать = I see the mother.

Animate masculine nouns take A or Я for their ending, depending on whether the consonant they end in is hard (A) or soft (Ь and Й are replaced by Я, or, more accurately, Й/Ь + А = Я). This is actually the same ending as the genitive case, which we haven't met yet; you're getting a leg up here: inanimate masculines have the same genitive forms.

Я вижу героя = I see a hero.
Я вижу Андрея = I see Andrey.
Я вижу коня = I see a horse.
Я вижу человека = I see a person.
Я вижу Путина = I see Putin.

Nouns: Plural

The plural form of nouns depends on the gender and singular ending.
Note that some nouns have either no plural (like English "money, help, advice, heroism") or no singular (like English "glasses, trousers, thanks, shenanigans").
Examples include брюки очки железо молодëжь trousers, eyeglasses, iron, youth (young people)

Things to remember:

• those ending in ИЙ and adding Ы will spell it ИИ: герой - герои
• nouns ending in ИЯ really end in ИЙА, and thus take ИИ: армия - армии
• after the velars and most hushers (К Г Х Ж Ш Ч Щ, though not Ц) you can't write Ы, so nouns ending in those will have И

1. Most masculine and feminine nouns take Ы (or И as required by the Spelling Rules). They add it to the end of the word or replace the vowel:

школа школы
ракета ракеты
трактор тракторы
стол столы

собака собаки
чай чаи
герой герои
врач врачи

1a. Some masculine nouns take А as their ending. These include the same ones with the special locative  (У), but also others, including a small number of nouns denoting professions. In colloquial spoken Russian, other professions may also have the A ending.

лес лесa
край края
берег берегa
доктор докторa
учитель учителя

1b. Masculine and feminine nouns ending in Ь take И, replacing the soft sign (basically an application of regular spelling):

ночь ночи
дождь дожди
мышь мыши

3. Neuter nouns ending in O take A; those ending in E take Я.

письмо письма
лето лета
море моря
право права
поле поля
здание здания
окно окна

3. Fleeting (mobile or fugitive) vowels disappearing from masculine nouns:

отец отцы
день дни

4. A few nouns add an infix before the plural ending. In some nouns (like небо - небеса or сын - сыновья) this is only present in plural forms; in some (like мать - матери or имя - имени) it is in all but nominative singular.

4a. Regular patterns include all nouns ending in -анин (dweller in) or -ëнок (young/offspring):

англичанин англичане
гражданин граждане
ребëнок ребята
котëнок котята

5. Some few nouns have quite irregular plurals, like друг - друзья or лист - листья.

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Downloadable files:

• Plural nouns from Milovanova 
• Plural nouns from Pulkina

Listening resources

Here are some sites where you can listen to Russian spoken by native speakers. (More will be added)

Bite-sized Russian is a Facebook page, but you don't need a Facebook account to browse the page and listen to the short dialogs.

Russian Podcast has more than 200 short lessons available.

Everyday Russian has more than 300 lessons on line.

This page from Fluent U lists 12 websites offering free audio lessons.

Pronouns: Possessives

 Possessive pronouns are also called possessive adjectives. First and second person (my, our, your) will agree in number and gender with the noun possessed; so too will the special "one's own" possessive that eliminates the "John handed Jim his book" ambiguity existing in English. The singular possessives мой твой свой (my, singular your, one's own) decline alike; the plurals наш ваш (our, plural your) decline alike.

The third person do not change their forms at all, not for number, case, nor gender. They are его (his, its) еë (her) их (their) - remember that with genitives (which possessives are) the Г in masculine/neuter endings is pronounced like В (yevo).

Note that Russian has no special predicative form (my book v the book is mine); the same form is used for both.

Also note that they look somewhat like the so-called "mixed declension" adjectives; this is because of the spelling rules for Ш and Й.

So here is the chart for possessive declensions. Empty cells mark forms we haven't encountered yet and will be filled in as we go.

Nominative	Genitive	Accusative inanim. / anim.	Dative	Instrumental	Prepositional
МОЙ ТВОЙ СВОЙ
мой		мой / моего			моëм
моя		мою			моей
моë		моë / моего			моëм
мои		мои / моих			моих
НАШ ВАШ
наш		наш / нашего			нашем
наша		нашу			нашей
наше		наше / нашего			нашем
наши		наши / наших			наших