Case is a form of formation and function of a word, endowing words with certain syntactic roles in a sentence, a connecting link between the individual parts of speech of a sentence. 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 the school curriculum, 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're 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.

There are so many cases in the Russian language, so many forms of changing the endings of words that define correct usage not only the case form, but also the number and gender.

I wonder what percentage of adults not involved in writing, editorial, educational or scientific activity, 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. With the correct spelling of words people special problems don't experience it.

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 it is still 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 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 represented in 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 the inflected word answers are causing difficulty and some confusion: the genitive case and the question “who?”, and accusative case with the question “who?”

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?” (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.

Case is a form of formation and function of a word, endowing words with certain syntactic roles in a sentence, a connecting link between the individual parts of speech of a sentence. 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 decline different parts of speech according to cases is a distinctive feature of a literate, educated person. Often the school curriculum, 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 it is still 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?” (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.

Some linguists believe that the Russian language is rich in cases. This means that there are not six of them, as schoolchildren study, but more. And, as it turns out, they have every reason to hold this opinion. So, how many cases are there in Russian? Let's try to figure this issue out.

Case system

The term “case” translated from Greek means “fall”, and from Latin it means “to fall”.

Case (declension) is a grammatical category designed to show the syntactic role of nouns and their interaction with other words of the sentence. In addition to the noun, adjectives, participles, numerals, and pronouns also change by case. It is worth noting that the case of these adjectival words depends on the declension of the noun being defined. It is expressed by changing the ending.

How many cases are there in Russian?

Considering the morphology of the Russian language, as a rule, six main cases are called:

• Nominative (original declension form).
• Genitive.
• Dative.
• Accusative.
• Instrumental.
• Prepositional.

The listed cases are called basic due to their widespread use. In addition, it is worth noting that their prevalence is due to the fact that the parts of speech that were mentioned earlier have grammatical forms for the listed cases.

To correctly declension words, you need to know that all cases answer questions. In addition, each of them expresses several meanings. Let's take a closer look at each.

Nominative

The corresponding questions are “who?”, “what?” To recognize this case, you need to add the word “is” to the noun. For example: there is (what?) a light bulb. Used without prepositions. The singular number has the following endings:

• 1st declension: -a, -i.
• 2nd declination: -o, -e or zero.

And in the plural: -ы, -и, -а, -я.

Since the nominative case acts as the initial case form words, his responsibilities include:

• give a name to the subject of an action or state ( Mother is cleaning, the children are tired);
• define, characterize an object, person or action (n your daughter is a doctor; war is a disaster);
• name the subject of the message, subject, action, property (used in sentences of this type: Morning. Sun.);
• Express an appeal to the interlocutor ( Baby, how old are you??).

Genitive

The corresponding questions are “who?”, “what?” To recognize this case, you need to substitute the word “no” with the noun. For example: there is no (what?) snow. Used with prepositions near, at, after, without, about, from, for, around, to, from, with. The singular number is determined by the following endings:

• 1st declension: -ы, -и.
• 2nd declension: -a, -i.
• 3rd declension: -i.

Has the ending: zero, -ov, -ev, -ey.

The genitive case may indicate:

• Item affiliation ( son's car).
• Carrier properties ( blue sky).
• The object to which the action is directed ( watching TV).
• The subject performing the action ( mom's arrival).
• Parts of the whole ( piece of cake).

Dative

Words in the dative case answer the questions “to whom?”, “what?”. To recognize this case, you need to substitute the word “dam” to the noun. For example: I'll give it to (who?) my sister. Used with prepositions to, by. In the singular, words in the dative case end in:

• 1st declension: -e, -i.
• 2nd declension: -у, -у.
• 3rd declension: -i.

Plural declension is characterized by endings: -am, -yam.

Words in the dative case are intended to indicate:

• Action recipient ( gave the magazine to a friend, wrote a letter to my mother);
• Subject of an action or state ( the guys couldn't sleep).

Accusative case

The corresponding questions are “who?”, “what?”. To recognize this case, you need to substitute the word “see” to the noun. For example: I see (who?) my mother. Used with prepositions in, for, on, about, through. The singular number corresponds to the endings:

• 1st declension: -у, -у.
• 2nd declension: -o, -e.
• 3rd declension: zero ending.

Plural: -ы, -и, -а, -я, -еy.

The accusative case, in turn:

• Denotes an action object ( clean the room, sew a dress).
• Expresses quantity, space, distance, measure of time (drive a kilometer, weigh a ton, wait a year, cost a penny).

Instrumental case

The questions correspond to “by whom?”, “with what?”. To recognize this case, you need to add the word “proud” to the noun. For example: I’m proud of (who?) my son. Used with prepositions for, above, under, before, with

• 1st declension: -oh (-oh), -ey (-ey).
• 2nd declension: -om, -em.
• 3rd declension: -ju.

Plural: -ami, -yami.

Intended to indicate:

• Permanent or temporary employment in any activity ( serves as a soldier, worked as a plumber).
• Subject of action - for passive constructions ( the house was demolished by workers).
• Action object ( breathe oxygen).
• Instrument or means of action ( treat with peroxide).
• Locations ( follow the path).
• Method, mode of action ( sing in a bass voice).
• Measures of time or quantity of something ( carry buckets).
• Item parameters ( the size of a fist).
• Compatibility of persons and objects ( brother and sister).

Prepositional

The corresponding questions are “about whom?”, “about what?”. To recognize this case, you need to add the word “think” to the noun. For example: I think (about whom?) about my beloved. Used with prepositions in, on, about, about, about, at. The singular number has endings:

• 1st declension: -e, -i.
• 2nd declension: -e. -And.
• 3rd declension: -i.

Plural cases end in: -akh, -yah.

Prepositions used with nouns in the prepositional case help determine what it means. Namely:

• Action object ( think about a girl).
• Place of action, states ( sit on a chair).
• Time after performing some action ( upon arrival).

Additional cases

In the Russian language, in addition to the six main cases, there are several forms that have a controversial status and are close to the case. They are also called cases of nouns, since they are intended exclusively for their declension. These include: the second genitive (partitive or quantitative-disjunctive), the second prepositional (local, locative), the second accusative (transformative, inclusive, collective), vocative form (vocative), counting, expectative, and disciplinarian cases. The peculiarity of these forms is that each of them occurs in a limited range of words. Moreover, they can exist in certain contextual conditions. Let's study these cases a little. Examples will help us understand them better.

The second one is for declension of some words masculine in the singular, referring to the second declension: a cup of tea, a spoonful of sugar. The ending of this case, namely “-у”, is more often used in colloquial speech and is not mandatory (you can say bag of sugar or bag of sugar). Exceptions are certain cases: let's drink some tea. Quite a lot of masculine nouns are not used in the partitive form: ice cube, piece of bread.

The second prepositional declension has special endings for a group of nouns that are singularly masculine. Case is used, for example, in the following words: on the shore, in the closet, in battle. Also, the locative is characterized by a shift of stress to the ending in certain nouns of the 3rd declension that are feminine and singular: in silence, aground, in the oven.

The second occurs with some verbs ( sign up, ask, choose, go, prepare, get out, mark etc.) after the preposition “in”. In addition, its endings are the same as in the plural: ( sign up to become a pilot).

The expectative case practically coincides with the genitive case, but it can be distinguished due to the declension of some words with the same grammatical form in the form of the accusative case: wait for (who? what?) telegram And wait for (who? what?) brother.

The counting case is slightly different from the genitive case and is used when counting: two steps, three dining rooms.

The vocative case is almost identical to the nominative form, but differs in the formation of an independent figure of speech, similar to an interjection: Van, Mash, Sing, Tan. That is, it is more often used in colloquial speech to address the interlocutor.

The negation case is a type of the accusative case, but is used only with negation of the verb: have no right, do not know the truth.

How many cases of an additional nature are there in the Russian language? According to our calculations, there were seven of them. But the most interesting thing is that some linguists consider only two full-fledged cases: locative (second prepositional) and inflective (second accusative). Others argue that the expectative case also has some meaning. But since the deprivative and second genitive cases can very often be replaced by the genitive, they can only be called variants of the genitive form of declension. Vocative and counting are also often not considered cases. In the first case it is simply a noun in nominative case, and in the second - a noun formed from an adjective.

Let's sum it up

After reviewing the information described above, you can answer the question of how many cases there are in the Russian language. So, at school we study the six main cases. They are used daily in any type of communication: conversation, correspondence, etc. But, besides them, there are seven more forms of declension, which are found mainly in colloquial speech. How many cases are there in total? We can safely say that there are thirteen of them. Considering that additional forms Declensions are variants of the basic ones, they are not offered for study in school to simplify educational process. But you can offer familiarization with them outside of class for general development.

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 initial, 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. So, prepositions are used with the genitive case:

from, to, for, because of, at, without, for, around, about, past 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 mother;
• act according to the rules;
• go towards the wind;
• act against fate.

Accusative case

Accusative case 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:

1. first step- find the word to which the given noun refers;
2. 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 system of cases makes up the declension of 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 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. It has such unstable features as number and 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 correct modification of nouns is the correct placement of the ending in connection with asked by the question. For native speakers this is easy task, 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. male and feminine with the ending -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 in an efficient way today is the use of 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 the change of words of various parts of speech (nouns, adjectives, numerals, pronouns, participles) according to 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 nouns general kind with the ending -а / -я in the nominative singular: wife, land, servant, young man, 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.

On the spelling of case endings of nouns, see: Spelling of unstressed endings of nouns.

Cases are expressed various roles 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 a stressed ending -а (-я) instead of the ending -ы (-и). 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 a singular stress on the first syllable, 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 according to their ending options, 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 and ever), 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 -

with ending -ov(-ev)

ending -ey

Englishmen, Armenians, Bashkirs, Bulgarians, Buryats, Georgians, Ossetians, Romanians, Tatars, Turkmens, 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 time-and, seed-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 - plural) the coat is 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 it was formed compound word: 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 give him a bath in warmer 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.

Superlative Denotes Excellence of this subject compared to others on some basis, for example: Everest - highest 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 of 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's a manager. - She's a manager.

He's an engineer. - She's an engineer.

He's a doctor. - She's 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 -ane: English anin – English Ana .

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 nouns denoting nationalities should be memorized.

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 right.
• The elevator is there left.
• Restaurant down.

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 sentences (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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Instructions

To begin with, you can explain the meaning in speech using a simple exercise. Compose a sentence and make a planned mistake in it. For example: “On Sunday we will definitely go to visit our grandparents.” Ask your child what is wrong with this sentence? Children usually find and correct obvious mistakes without difficulty. Using examples like these, we can clearly show that cases make our speech coherent, thanks to them we can easily understand each other.

There are only six main cases in the Russian language. A poem familiar to many from childhood helps to remember them. It is quite unusual, but it is the best way to promote the assimilation of the order of cases:
Ivan (Nominative)
Gave birth (Genitive)
Girl (Dative)
Velel (Accusative)
Drag (Creative)
Diaper (Prepositional)
The initial letter of each of the words of the poem corresponds to the first letter of the case. This is a kind of mnemonic rule that promotes memorization by expanding associative connections.

Another expression is based on this, memorizing which will also help you learn the order of cases:
Ivan (Nominative)
Chopped (Genitive)
Firewood (Dative)
Varvara (Accusative)
Stoked (Creative)
Oven (Prepositional)
Knowing your child, you can come up with any other statement for him based on this principle.

Auxiliary words and small tips help you remember cases and their corresponding questions.
The nominative case answers the questions “who?” "What?" (“Masha”, “chair”, “”).
Genitive case - there is no “who?”, “what?” next to us. (“Masha”, “chairs”, “horses”).
Dative case - give a toy to “who?”, “what?” (“Mache”, “chair”, “horse”).
Accusative case - I see nearby, in the distance “who?”, “what?” (“Waving”, “chair”, “horse”).
Instrumental case - I create (I draw, I compose) together “with whom?”, “with what?” (“with Masha”, “with a chair”, “with a horse”).
Prepositional case - I propose to talk “about whom?”, “about what?” (“about Masha”, “about the chair”, “about the horse”).
In this case, be sure to pay the child’s attention to identity initial letters in the name of the case and the auxiliary word: “dative - give”, “accusative - I see”, “agency - I create”, “prepositional - I offer”.

Related article

Sources:

• Kanakina V.P. Russian language. Cases

Tip 2: How to distinguish the genitive case of a noun from the accusative case

Cases of the Russian language is a category of a word that shows its syntactic role in a sentence. Schoolchildren memorize the names of cases and their signs, that is, questions, but sometimes difficulties arise. For example, when you need to distinguish the genitive case from the accusative case.

You will need

• Knowledge of Russian language by school curriculum, nouns in accusative and genitive cases,

Instructions

There are six: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, prepositional. To determine case, auxiliary words and questions are used. The spelling of the ending of the word depends on this. Very often they confuse the genitive (no: whom? what?) and the accusative (blame: whom? what?), since the questions to animate objects are asked the same: “who?”

Ask a question. If in doubt, ask the noun a qualifying question: “no what?” (for genitive) and "I see what?" (for accusative). If a word takes the form of the nominative case, it means in this case It's accusative. For example: small fish (accusative: I see what? a fish, you cannot say: there’s nothing? a fish).

If you need to determine the case in order to place endings, substitute the word “cat” or any other word instead of the noun, but be sure to use the first one. Depending on the ending, determine the case. For example: pride in the teacher is the accusative case, because, substituting the word “cat” in place of the noun, we get: pride in the cat. The ending "u" indicates the accusative case. The ending "and" is in the genitive.

Analyze the relationship of words in. Genitive, as a rule, the relationship between a part and the whole (a glass of milk), belonging to something (a sister’s jacket), it is used in comparison (more beautiful than a queen). The accusative is used to convey spatio-temporal relations (work for a week), the transition from an action to an object (drive a car).

Use the same methods for the inflexible. For example: put on a coat (put on a cat - accusative case), do without coffee (do without a cat - genitive).

Please note

The accusative case denotes the complete coverage of the object by the action, a certain amount(drink milk), and the genitive case is the extension of the action to part of the object (drink milk).

Useful advice

An inanimate noun in the accusative case does not change, unlike the same noun in the genitive case: I saw a house (accusative), there were no houses in the area (genitive)

Sources:

• Page dedicated to grammatical characteristics noun

“Ivan Gave Birth to a Girl and Ordered to Drag a Diaper” - the first letters of this literary nonsense orderly read out the list of cases. There are six types of cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, prepositional. Each of them speaks about the temporary state of a particular noun, which can change in case form. Determining the type of case of a noun is not difficult; you just need to figure out what question each case answers.

Instructions

Case nominative– initial, real sound of the word. Answers the questions “who?” or “what?” If it is inanimate, for example: a window, a house, a book, a bus, then it answers the question “what?”, and if it is animate, for example, a girl, an elephant, a mother, Rita, then, accordingly, it answers the question “who?” This distribution according to the liveliness of the subject will concern everyone, which is why each case has two questions. Example 1. Man (who?) is an animate noun in the nominative case, machine (what?) is an inanimate noun in the nominative case.

Genitive case, from the word “to give birth to whom?” or “what?” No matter how funny it may sound, this is exactly how the question should be asked. A number of questions are the same, so some words will sound the same, the main thing is to put the case question correctly. Example 2. A person (whom?) is an animate noun in the genitive case, a car (what?) is an inanimate noun in the genitive case.

The accusative case answers the question: “whom to blame?” or “what?” In the above example, an inanimate noun coincides, so the case is determined logically, according to meaning. Example 4. A person (who?) is an animate noun in the accusative case, a car (what?) is an inanimate noun in the accusative case. But if it makes sense: I bought a car (genitive case), but crashed the car (accusative case).

The instrumental case sounds like: “to create by whom?” or “what?” Example 5. By a person (by whom?) is an animate noun in the instrumental case, by a machine (by what?) is an inanimate noun in the instrumental case.

Prepositional case - posing a question that is not consonant with its name: “to talk about whom?” or “about what?” It is easy to determine a word in this case, since a noun in this case always has . Example 6. About a person (about whom?) is an animate noun in the prepositional case, about a car (about what?) is an inanimate noun in the prepositional case.

Video on the topic

Useful advice

Even if a case question does not match the meaning in a given sentence, it should still be asked to determine the case of a noun.

Related article

Sources:

• School experience
• cases example words

Tip 4: How to explain the word “no” to your child in 2019

To protect a child from danger, adults are forced to say “no”. This is not always met with understanding from the child. To avoid quarrels and conflicts, follow a few rules.