Many of us are not philologists, so a considerable number of errors can be fixed in everyday speech and writing. If you somehow manage to cope with frequently used words, then ridiculous incidents can happen with proper names, in particular with the names of geographical objects. City of Moscow or city of Moscow? How to inflect a toponym correctly if it stands together with a generic word? What if the name is plural? We will try to understand these and other issues below.
What is a toponym
Toponym is the name of a geographical object, a proper name. For example: Volga, Moscow, Carpathians, London, Prostokvashino, Baikal, etc.
Toponyms, in turn, are divided into several types: godonyms are the names of streets, comonyms are the names of villages, pelagonims are the names of the seas, astionims arecity names, etc.
What are generic words
If the text is filled with borrowed words, proper names or abbreviations, then generic words are used nearby to explain them.
Example: "Many ArtPeople workers use regular PowerPoint in the early stages of development."
It would be more correct to put it like this: "Many ArtPeople workers in the early stages of development use a regular PowerPoint program."
In this case, the words "corporation" and "program" are generic, as they give the reader the necessary additional information.
Generic or generalizing words of toponyms will be: city, village, village, farm, river, lake, etc.
How is it right?
City of Moscow or city of Moscow? City of St. Petersburg or city of St. Petersburg? Volga rivers or Volga rivers? To answer this question for yourself once and for all, you need to learn a few simple rules.
In ordinary colloquial speech, toponyms are rarely pronounced together with generic words. More often we say: "I live in Moscow" than "I live in the city of Moscow". Therefore, let's first find out how "bare" toponyms decline in cases.
How toponyms decline
Nominative case - Moscow.
Genitive - Moscow.
Dative - Moscow.
Accusative - Moscow.
Instrumental - Moscow.
Prepositional case - about Moscow.
Nominative case - Veliky Novgorod.
Genitive - Veliky Novgorod.
Dative - Veliky Novgorod.
Accusative - Veliky Novgorod.
Instrumental - Veliky Novgorod.
Prepositional case - about Veliky Novgorod.
Or another example:
Nominative case - Alexandrov.
Genitive - Aleksandrova.
Dative case - to Alexandrov.
Accusative - Alexandrov.
The instrumental case - Alexandrov.
Prepositional case - about Alexandrov.
It is worth noting: if the name of the city sounds the same as the surname (Alexandrov, Pushkin, Lermontov), then the differences will be visible in the accusative case: Alexandrov (surname) in this case will be pronounced and written as "Alexandrova", while Aleksandrov (city) would be pronounced and spelled "Aleksandrov". And in the instrumental case Lermontov (surname) - Lermontov, and Lermontov (city) - Lermontov.
Declination of toponyms used with generic names
We figured out a little about how ordinary toponyms without generic words decline. It is clear that you need to say: "I work in Perm", and not "I work in Perm". But what if the toponym is preceded by the word "city"? What is the correct spelling: cities of Moscow or Moscow? Do you need to change all the components of the phrase or just some of them?
If the name is propercombined with a generalizing word (city, village, settlement, etc.), then it takes on its own case, that is, it declines. This applies to those toponyms that were born in Russian or borrowed, but have already taken root in our speech.
Therefore, it is correct to say: the city of Novgorod, from the village of Petrovka, along the Desna River, etc.
What is correct: Day of the City of Moscow or Moscow? Right: Day of the city of Moscow, Day of the city of Rostov-on-Don, Day of the city of Perm, Day of the city of Yaroslavl. But! Day of the city of Enakievo. Why? See below.
If they end in -ovo, -evo, -ino, -yno…
If the name of the settlement originated in Russian and has the ending -ovo, -evo, -ino, -yno, in this case the toponym is not inclined, only the generic word changes: in the city of Lutugino, in the city of Rivne, in the village Petrovo, in the city of Yenakiyevo, etc.
If such a toponym is used without a generic name, then two options are allowed: incline and not incline. This happened because the rules of the Russian language changed several times.
Since ancient times and now, TV announcers inflect place names that end in -ovo, -evo, -ino, -yno, because this is historically correct, but with such manipulations it is more difficult to calculate the original form of a proper name.
Multi-word geographical name
If the toponym has a plural form, then everything is simple: it does not decline. For example: in the city of Great Bridges. Even if the geographical name consists of onewords, but has a plural form, it still does not decline: in the village of Duby.
If the toponym consists of several words, but has a singular form, then two options are possible, and all because the "Dictionary of geographical names" and "Dictionary of grammatical variants" contradict each other. In the city of Krivoy Rog and in the city of Krivoy Rog will not be a mistake.
When toponyms don't decline
You already know how to decline "city of Moscow", but the Russian language is full of mysteries, tricks and contradictions.
So, we have already said above that if the name of a geographical object is plural and is used together with a generic word, then in this case the toponym is not inclined: in the village of Vysokie Lugi, in the city of Mytishchi, in the village of Duby.
The second case is when the gender of the generic word and toponym do not match (but this rule does not apply to the word "city"). For example: along the Dnieper River (the river is feminine, the Dnieper is masculine), but along the Desna River (after all, the words "river" and "Desna" are of the same gender); from the village of Yekaterinovka, in the village of Teremok, but in the village of Yekaterinovka, near the farm Teremka.
Also, toponyms do not decline if the generic word is on this list: state, bay, peninsulas, region, island, district, district, area, village and others, but this does not apply if the toponym sounds like an adjective: behind Red Square, but behind Rogozhskaya Zastava Square; on the Archimandrite Lake, but on the Avras Lake.
Whichcase, you need to specify the generic word
We have already figured out how to write correctly: the city of Moscow or the city of Moscow, but is it necessary to use the word "city" in everyday life? In official business speech, generic names are used necessarily, but if it concerns everyday topics, then the word "city" is absolutely superfluous here.
An exception to the recommendations can be considered those place names that originated from surnames: Kirov, Lermontov, Pushkin, etc., therefore, in this case, adding a generic name is correct.
How to pronounce: the city of Moscow or the city of Moscow, you know, but in everyday oral communication or friendly correspondence such clericalism is inappropriate, save this knowledge for filling out business documents or if you have to give an interview.
Summarizing
If we use the word "city" with a singular feminine or masculine toponym, then we decline it: in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk, with the city of Yaroslavl, the city of Paris.
If the name of the city ends with -ovo, -evo, -ino, -yno, then the toponym does not decline, only the general word changes: in the city of Yenakiyevo, the city of Ivakino.
The toponym remains unchanged if it is used with a generic name and has the plural form: in the city of Borovichi, in the city of Vyatskiye Polyany.
If the name of the city consists of several words, but has a singular form and is used with a general word, then the toponym can be declined or not.
WhatAs for rivers, villages and other generalizing common nouns, there are somewhat different rules: if the gender of the toponym and the generic word are the same, then the construction is declined, if not, the proper name remains unchanged. On the Lena River, beyond the Angara River, along the Western Dvina River, but on the Dnieper River, beyond the Khoper River, along the Maly Yenisei River.
Test yourself
Flipping through this article, you probably already know how to write correctly: the city of Moscow or the city of Moscow. Now practice with other names:
- city of Makhachkala;
- the city of Veliky Novgorod;
- Sochi city;
- city of Aznakayevo;
- city of Lermontov;
- Borisovka village;
- Big Guy village;
- Konda River;
- Vitim River;
- Crimean Peninsula;
- Kamchatka Peninsula;
- State of Israel;
- Gulf of Carpentaria;
- Inhabitant Bay.
Answers
City of Makhachkala: R. p. - the city of Makhachkala, D. p. - the city of Makhachkala, V. p. - the city of Makhachkala, E. p. - the city of Makhachkala, P. p. - the city of Makhachkala.
City of Veliky Novgorod: R. p. - the city of Veliky Novgorod / the city of Veliky Novgorod.
City of Sochi: R. p. - the city of Sochi, D. p. - the city of Sochi, V. p. - the city of Sochi, etc.
City of Aznakayevo: R. p. - the city of Aznakayevo, D. p. - the city of Aznakayevo, V. p. - the city of Aznakayevo, etc.
City of Lermontov: R. p. - the city of Lermontov, D. p. - the city of Lermontov, V. p. - the city of Lermontov, E. p. - the city of Lermontov, P. p. - about the cityLermontov.
Borisovka village: R. p. - the village of Borisovka, D. p. - the village of Borisovka, V. p. - the village of Borisovka, E. p. - the village of Borisovka, P. p. - about the village of Borisovka.
Village of Bolshoy Gay: R. p. - the village of Bolshoy Gai, D. p. - the village of Bolshoy Gai, V. p. - the village of Bolshoy Gai, E. p. - the village of Bolshoy Gai, P. p. - about the village of Big Guy.
Konda River: R. p. - rivers of Konda, etc.
Vitim River: R. p. - Vitim River.
Crimean Peninsula: R. p. - Crimean Peninsula.
Kamchatka Peninsula: R. p. - the Kamchatka Peninsula.
State of Israel: R. p. - the State of Israel.
Gulf of Carpentaria: R. p. - Gulf of Carpentaria.
Obitochny Bay: R. p. - Obitochny Bay.
