Russian cases

Russian nominal declension of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and numerals involves six cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, prepositional; two numbers singular, plural (note that some Russian nouns are always only plural or only singular), and absolutely obeying tree grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Russian nouns are either animate or inanimate.

Nominative case: naming[edit]

The nominative case is, in essence, the subject of the sentence. This case is also the form of the noun that you will find in the dictionary. The English word nominative comes from the Latin word for name. The Russian word именительный comes from the root имя, meaning name.

Genitive case: generations[edit]

The genitive case tells us where something originates from. It is used to express the same ideas that are expressed by of, apostrophe + s, and from in English. The English word genitive is related to the verb generate. In Russian, родить means to give birth to.

Dative case: giving[edit]

The dative case is used for the indirect object of the sentence. If you're not familiar with English grammar, the indirect object is the noun which receives the secondary action of the verb. For example, in the sentence I gave the ball to the dog. the word dog is the indirect object. The dative case can generally be thought of as at, to, towards, or for someone or something if it is used without a prepostion. The dative case can also be used to describe along or on something.

Accusative case: accusing[edit]

The accusative case is used for the direct object of the sentence. If you're not familiar with English grammar, the direct object is the noun which receives the initial action of the verb. For example, in the sentence I gave the ball to the dog. the word ball is the direct object.

Instrumental case: instrument[edit]

The instrumental case tells us what we use to do something. It can often be associated with the English words with or by, but sometimes doesn't require a preposition to be present. It is also used to show that one object is located a short distance from, or in the vicinity of, another object. It is also used with the prepositions over and under.

Prepositional case: position[edit]

The prepositional case, also known as the locative case, describes the location or position of a noun. It is often used with prepositions such as on, at, in, about, and others.