The grammar of the modern Russian language has ten parts of speech. They can be divided into interjections and non-interjections, into independent and auxiliary ones.
Independent non-interjectional parts of speech are divided into names, verb and adverb. There are three names in Russian: adjective, noun, numeral. Based on some signs, pronouns can also be attributed to them.
Numeral as nominal part of speech
What words are numerals? What question does the numeral answer? How is the number inclined? Far from a complete list of issues related to the definition of the name of the numeral.
Like all nominal parts of speech, the numeral is characterized by declension according to the case paradigm. The nominative case is considered the initial form. There is no gender category for numerals (the exceptions are the numerals two, one, ordinal numbers and collective both / both). The category of number is not defined for this part of speech, except for ordinal numbers.
Namesnumerals can be all members of the sentence. Often they perform the syntactic role of the subject, definition or object. Rarely are they predicates and circumstances. Phrases of numerals and nouns are indivisible and act as one member of the sentence.
Grammar digits of numerals
Names are semantic and grammatically divided into ordinal and quantitative. The category is determined depending on which question the numeral answers. If by the way questions are asked: “how much?”, “In what quantity?”, then it belongs to the category of cardinal numbers. The words that answer the question: “what is the number?” are ordinal numbers.
Quantitative numerals are divided into three subspecies: actually quantitative (twenty, forty-eight, nine hundred), fractional (one fifth, nine tenths), collective (two, eight).
Structural types of numerals
A numeral may consist of one or more words. A numeral consisting of one root is simple: one hundred, three, one million, fifteen. If a number consists of one word in which there are two roots, then it is a complex number: two hundred, five hundred, fifty, nine hundred. Compound numbers are those numbers that include two words or more: thirty-fifth, twenty thousand seven hundred ninety-two, four eighths, one point five tenths.
Declination of numbers
Features of the declension of numerals is one of the difficult topicsRussian morphology. There are few questions on the declension of simple numbers, although each numeral is declined uniquely. Simple and compound numerals decline differently if they belong to different categories. Complex cardinal numbers change both roots in declension. In this case, each root changes as a separate numeral.
| Case | Question | Examples |
| Nominative | how much? | fifty, four hundred, seven hundred |
| Genitive | how many? | fifty, four hundred, seven hundred |
| Dative | how many? | fifty, four hundred, seven hundred |
| Accusative | how much? | fifty, four hundred, seven hundred |
| Creative | how many? | fifty, four hundred, seven hundred |
| Prepositional | about how many? | (o) fifty, (o) four hundred, (o) seven hundred |
Compound cardinal declension changes each word as a separate word.
| Case | Question | Examples |
| Nominative | how much? | two hundred and fifteen, two thousand and six |
| Genitive | how many? | two hundred and fifteen, two thousand and six |
| Dative | how many? | two hundred and fifteen,two thousand and six |
| Accusative | how much? | two hundred and fifteen, two thousand and six |
| Creative | how many? | two hundred and fifteen, two thousand and six |
| Prepositional | about how many? | (o) two hundred and fifteen, (o) two thousand and six |
Fractional numerals are always compound numerals (excluding the word one and a half), in the declension of which each word changes.
| Case | Question | Examples |
| Nominative | how much? | three point three sixths, one point seven eighths |
| Genitive | how many? | three point three sixths, one point seven eighths |
| Dative | how many? | three point three sixth, one point seven eighthth |
| Accusative | how much? | three point three sixths, one point seven eighths |
| Creative | how many? | three point three sixths, one point seven eighths |
| Prepositional | about how many? | (o) three point three sixths, (o) one point seven eighths |
The words one and a half and one and a half hundred have a special declension paradigm. They have only two forms: accusative and nominative cases: one and a half, one and a half hundred, and indirect cases: one and a half, one and a half hundred.
Ordinalnumerals change according to the paradigm of adjective declension.
| Case | Question | Examples |
| Nominative | what's the score? | fifth, one thousand nine hundred and eighth |
| Genitive | what's the score? | fifth, one thousand nine hundred and eighth |
| Dative | what's the score? | fifth, one thousand nine hundred and eighth |
| Accusative | what/th in the account? | fifth/th, one thousand nine hundred and eighth/th |
| Creative | what's the score? | fifth, 1908th |
| Prepositional | about what number? | (about) the fifth, (about) one thousand nine hundred and eighth |
Ordinal compound numbers decline in a special way: in indirect cases, only the last word changes form.
Spelling cardinal numbers
In Russian there are spelling rules for numerals that you need to follow.
- At the end of some numerals, a soft sign is required - b (from 5 to 20, 30). For other numerals, b is written in the middle of the word, after the first root (50, 60, 70, 80, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900).
- Compound numbers are written separately: 489 - four hundred and eighty nine, 21453 - twenty one thousand four hundred and fifty three.
- Fractional numbers have separate spelling: six sevenths, one fourth.
- The numeral thousand is declined according to the 1st declension noun paradigm: thousand (cloud) – thousands (clouds).
Spelling ordinal numbers
The spelling of ordinal numbers differs from the spelling of cardinal numbers. Compound numbers are written separately. Examples are as follows: 2010 - two thousand and tenth, 34th - thirty-fourth. Ordinal numbers are written together, ending in -millionth, -thousandth, -billionth: 20000th - twenty thousandth, 5000000th - five millionth.
Syntactic role of numerals
Simple and compound numerals perform the same roles in a sentence, often connecting with a noun into a single member of the sentence. For example, the phrase “numeral + noun” can be subject: “One house has been built. Twenty-three houses have been built. However, the phrase "ordinal number + noun" is not one member of the sentence, and the ordinal number acts as a definition.
Borders of the numeral
In Russian linguistics, the question of defining the boundaries of the numeral as a part of speech has long been raised.
Leading scientists emphasize the insufficient formation of this part of speech. There is a group of linguists who do not recognize the numeral as a separate part of speech. In this regard, there are different opinions on the definition of the composition of numerals. In a narrow sense, onlyquantitative: and compound numerals, and simple, and complex, and ordinal are included in the category of relative adjectives. In a broad sense, numerals include digits of quantitative and ordinal, as well as words that do not indicate a specific amount: so much, much, how much, little.
