The 6 Russian cases explained
Здравствуй, my dear Russian learners!
I know that cases scare the most of you, so I decided to tell you more about them and show that they are actually not that scary.
What are ‘cases’ & why do we need them?
‘Case’ is a grammatical category that indicates the relation of a word to other words. The word declines in cases to take the right place in the sentence.
English and many other languages have a clear word order in a sentence. Subject, verb, object. The Russian language is much more flexible in this sense, precisely because it allows for the use of cases.
Here’s one of the easiest examples, usually given to children:
- “Мама моет Катю.” (“Mom washes Katya.”) – If we change the word order, the meaning will remain the same. But, if we change the case: “Маму моет Катя.” – we get the opposite meaning: “Katya washes Mom.”
I like to give my students another example: Who loves whom?
- “Наташа любит Ивана.” = “Ивана любит Наташа.” (“Natasha loves Ivan.”)
- “Наташе нравится Андрей.” = “Андрей нравится Наташе.” (“Natasha likes Andrey.”)
The word order has changed, but the meaning hasn’t. It doesn't matter that the subject, Natasha, is now at the end of the sentence.
How many cases are there in Russian?
Cases exist in many languages, e.g. German has four, Finnish has 15 (!), while Russian has six, just like Latin. And not only nouns are consistent with them, but also adjectives and participles.
- Nominative – answers to the question “кто?” – “Красивая девочка.”
- Genitive – “Кого? Чего?” – “Для красивой девочки.”
- Dative – “Кому? Чему?” – “Подарю цветы красивой девочке.”
- Accusative – “Кого? Что?” – “Вижу красивую девочку.”
- Instrumental – “Кем? Чем?” – “Горжусь красивой девочкой.”
- Prepositional – “О ком? О чем?” – “Думаю о красивой девочке.”
This table of endings can help you determine the case.
Case | 1st declension | 2nd declension | 3rd declension | Plural |
Nominative | а, я | (-), о, е | (-) | ы, и, а, я |
Genitive | ы, и | а, я | и | (-), ов, ев, ей |
Dative | е, и | у, ю | и | ам, ям |
Accusative | у, ю | о, е, а, я, (-) | (-) | (-), ы, и, а, я, ей |
Instrumental | ой, ей | ом, ем | ю | ами, ями |
Prepositional | е, и | е, и | и | ах, ях |
Prepositions as an indicator of cases
The appropriate prepositions also help to recall cases. Below is a list of the main prepositions by case. However, keep in mind, sometimes, prepositions can indicate different cases (for example, ‘в’, ‘о’, ‘с’)
- Nominative is not used with prepositions.
- Genitive – с, у, от, до, из, без, для, из-за, из-под, возле, около, вроде, среди, между, кроме, вокруг.
- Dative – к, по.
- Accusative – в, на, за, о, под, про, через.
- Instrumental – с, за, над, под, перед, между.
- Prepositional – о, в, об, во, на, при, обо.