Russian nouns

Noun names a person, animal, place, thing, abstract idea, etc. Most Russian nouns decline to indicate its function in the sentence. They change their form, the different endings are added to the steam of the word and sometimes even the root of the word may alter as well. Often stress in the Russian noun moves as the result of declension and becomes unrecognisable by a foreigner. It is extremely important to learn how Russian nouns decline as it is the case of a noun but not its position (as in English) indicates its function in a sentence.

The case of a noun is often associated with the preposition and/or the verb that stands in front of it. Russian declension of nouns involves:

• six basic cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, prepositional
• two numbers (some Russian nouns are always plural or always singular).
• three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter
  • All the masculine nouns can be replaced by the personal pronoun он.
  • All the feminine nouns can be replaced by the personal pronoun она.
  • All the neuter nouns can be replaced by the personal pronoun оно.
  • All the plural nouns can be replaced by the personal pronoun они.

Russian nouns are either animate or inanimate.

• proper and common

Russian adjectives, pronouns and numerals decline and agree with the noun according to the gender, the number and the case of the modifided noun.