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

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

Adjectives: Accusative Case

Adjectives must agree in case with the nouns the modify.

The accusative case endings are fairly simple.

For masculine and neuter inanimate nouns, the ending is the same as the nominative, while the animate ending is either ОГО for regular hard (ЫЙ) or those with stems ending in К (КИЙ) and for end-stressed (ОЙ), or ЕГО for everything else except the третий type which takes ЬЕГО.

For feminines, it's either УЮ for all hard endings  or ЮЮ for soft ones, with ЬЮ for the третий type.


Using the nouns from the post on accusative in nouns, here are adjectives:

 1. The “accusative of time”

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

2. The “accusative of motion”

• Мы едем в красивую Москву. = We're going to beautiful Moscow.
• Мы идëм в большой музей. = We're going to a big museum.

 3. Other accusatives

• Мы идëм через тëмный лес. = We're walking through the dark woods.
• Мы идëм через широкую улыцу. = We're going across the wide street.
• Спасибо за любезное письмо. = Thanks for the kind letter.
• Cколько получает писатель за новую книгу? = How much does an author get for a new book?
• Я – за нашего Путина! = I'm for our Putin!

For adjectives modifying neuter nouns and inanimate masculine nouns, the accusative is the same as the nominative.

Я вижу красивый сад. = I see a beautiful garden.
Я вижу маленкий лес. = I see the small woods.
Я вижу Британский музей. = I see the British Museum.
Я вижу золотой рубль. = I see a golden ruble.
Я вижу открытое окно. = I see the open window.
Я вижу синее море. = I see the blue sea.
Я вижу собачий дом. = I see the dog house.


For adjectives modifying feminine and masculine nouns ending in A, Я, or Ь, the ending changes to УЮ or ЮЮ. Note: this is one way to mark nouns in Ь as accusative.


Я вижу длинную улыцу. = I see a long street.
Я вижу Красную армию. = I see the Red army.
Я вижу мою мать. = I see my mother.
Я вижу синюю книгу. = I see the blue book.
Я вижу лисью морду. = I see the fox's face.


For adjectives modifying animate masculine nouns, the ending changes to ОГО or ЕГO. 

Я вижу храброго героя. = I see a brave hero.
Я вижу твоего папу. = I see your dad.
Я вижу нашего Андрея. = I see our Andrey.
Я вижу белого коня. = I see a white horse.
Я вижу високого человека. = I see a tall person.
Я вижу побеждающего Путина. = I see the conquering Putin.
Я вижу третьего мальчика. = I see the third boy.
Я вижу маленького сироту. = I see the little orphan boy.

Nouns: Cases: Accusative

Accusative case is (primarily) the object of action – what we call “the direct object”. It answers the questions: кого? что?  whom? 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 Putin!

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.


Here are the covers of two books written by Andrey Kolesnikov about Putin's first two presidential terms. Note that only case endings differentiate the titles - the word order is the same.

Nouns: Cases: Prepositional

The prepositional case (in English, the "object case" is used here) follows (some) prepositions and basically names the place where actions occur. (Thus, an alternate name some resources may use is locative case.)

Prepositional case answers the questions: о ком? о чëм? где? about whom? about what? where?
In Russian grammar books, when there is a table of case endings, prepositional is always shown with O, because this case must follow a preposition.

(See here for discussion of prepositions)

Prepositional case is introduced early in our book because it's so easy. There are only two* endings, И and Е, and the rules for which are simple and as close to being without exceptions as Russian gets. There's no consideration of animacy and only ten nouns where gender matters; it's all about the way the noun ends.

1. Does it end in ИЙ, ИЕ, or ИЯ? Then replace the final letter with И:

санаторий о санатории about the clinic
здание о здании about the building
армия об армии about the army

2. Does it end in Ь? Then replace the Ь with И:

ночь о ночи about the night
день о дне about the day
мать о матери about a mother

(Note: the -EP- infix shows up in all oblique cases (i.e., all but nominative singular) of both мать and дочь (so o дочери).)

3. Is it a neuter noun ending in МЯ? (This is the trickiest, but you'll get used to these nouns and their infix.) Then replace the Я with ЕНИ.

имя об имени about the name

4. Anything else? Replace any final vowel with E and add E to final consonants. Two spelling notes: Й plus E is just E, so the Й vanishes, and yes, words ending in E have the same form as their nominatives.

брат о брате about the brother
чай о чае about tea
герой o герое about a hero
папа о папе about Dad
сад o садe about the garden
окно об окне about a window
море о море about the sea
вода о воде about water

* Okay, actually there are three. (You didn't really think it was going to be that easy, did you?) Due to an historical quirk, some masculine (mostly) one-syllable nouns (or compounds with them) have a different ending in the locative (which is why O is used in grammar tables and charts). These nouns are -E with о, при, and по, about, under (of time), and along. But with в and на, in and on, they have the ending -У:

сад garden o садe but в саду in the garden
день day о дне but на дню on the day
порт port o портe but в порту in the port
край edge  о крае but на краю at the edge
берег shore  о береге but на берегу on the shore
аэропорт airport o аэропортe but в аэропорту at the airport

Prepositions: Types and Case governance

Types of Prepositions

Prepositions may be classified as derivative or non-derivative. Non-derivative prepositions (sometimes called simple) are prepositions purely and primarily (English examples are of, on, to); these may govern one, two, or (rarely) three cases. The meaning of the preposition will differ when the case does.  Derivative prepositions began as other parts of speech, usually phrases (English examples are  beside, due to, and considering). Russian derivative prepositions are adverbial, nominal, and verbal, depending on whether they originated from adverbs, nouns, or verbs; and are simple (one word) or compound  (containing another preposition - English compound examples are things like due to, according to, because of, regardless of). They only ever take one case.


Prepositional Case

The prepositional case (in English, the "object case" is used here) mainly names the place where actions occur. (Thus, an alternate name some resources may use is locative case.)

Prepositional case answers the questions: о ком? о чëм? где? about whom? about what? where?
In Russian grammar books, when there is a table of case endings, prepositional is always shown with O, because this case, alone among Russian cases, must follow a preposition.


There are only five prepositions that take (govern) Prepositional, all of them non-derivative. 

One case:
при, under (of time), by

Two cases: 
в in, на on, о about

Three cases:
 по, along


Accusative Case

Accusative case (in English, the "object case" is used here) mainly names the recipient of action or the thing acted upon. It answers the questions: кого? что? whom? what?

There are fifteen prepositions that take Accusative: ten non-derivative and five derivative, the latter all verbal - three simple and two compound.

One case:
про about, сквозь through, через across

Two cases:
в into, на onto, о about, под under, за behind, for

Three cases:
по along, с (of time) approximately

Derivatives:
исключая excluding, включая including, спустя later, несмотря на despite, невзирая на regardless of

Nouns: Case

First things first: If you don't already speak an inflected language (such as Latin or German), go to the Russian Language Mentor and read Fundamentals of Case Grammar. This will give you a better understanding of what's going on when Russian inflects for case.

Russian has six cases, answering six general questions:

Case Name	English name	Function	Questions
Nominative	Subject	actor or agent, doer	Who? What?
Genitive	Possessive	possessor	Of whom, whose? Of what?
Accusative	Objective	object, one/thing done to	Whom? What?
Dative	Objective	indirect object, recipient	To whom? To what?
Instrumental	Objective	accompaniment, thing used	With/by whom? With/by what?
Prepositional	Objective	location, thing talked about	About whom? About what? Where?

Notice that in English, 'whom' declines but 'what' doesn't, and that 'whom' has only two declined forms. That's pretty much the case across the board. English nouns only change to show possession. Pronouns also change when used as objects - that is, some of them do.

Now, on to the case forms.

The dictionary form of the noun, the one you will learn in vocabulary lists and such, is the nominative case. (In English, this is often called "the subject(ive) case".) All subjects and all predicate nominatives are in nominative case. It is the basic form, the one all other forms change from.

The patterns of a noun's changing are called its declension. Generally, people say the endings are added to the noun; in practice, this is true for masculine nouns, but feminine and neuter nouns have their endings changed.

As an example, the full set for masculine стол table and feminine книга book:
стол стола стола столу столом столе столы столов столы столам столами столах
книга книги книгу книге книгой книге книги книг книги книгам книгами книгах
Note how the -a from книга disappears and is replaced by the other endings. (Don't fear! We will go into all the cases and their endings.)

Posts by Case:
Prepositional:

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Resources  

Here is a web application that will provide all the forms of a noun you provide.

These language learning sites will have units on noun cases: Master Russian, Russian Nouns and Cases.

From Learning Russian,Nouns and Cases.

From Russian Lessons, Summary of the Cases with more details at links provided.