In this article, we will provide information on how to correctly determine the cases of nouns in Russian, as well as how the change in cases and numbers is called.
Let's try to ask a few questions to the noun "pencil" ("pencils"):
- What do you have? - Pencil. Pencils.
- What can't be seen in the dark? - Pencil. Pencils.
- What needs a sharpener? - Pencil. Pencils.
- What did you hide? - Pencil. Pencils.
- How is the picture drawn? - Pencil. Pencils.
- What are we talking about now? - About the pencil. About pencils.
What conclusion can be drawn after carefully studying the questions and answers to them? Depending on the questions, the endings in the answers change.
Case as a grammatical category
Relation to the object denoted by the noun expresses the case. There are six of them in Russian. Each of them has its own questions, which will always tell you how to determine the case.
| Case | Question to an animate noun | Examples of animate nouns | Question to an inanimate noun | Examples of inanimate nouns |
| Nominative | Who? | cat, sparrow, daughter, child | What? | jacket, rye, sunshine |
| Genitive | Who? | cats, sparrows, daughters, children | What? | sweatshirts, rye, sunshine |
| Dative | Who? | cat, sparrow, daughter, child | What? | jacket, rye, sun |
| Accusative | Who? | cat, sparrow, daughter, child | What? | jacket, rye, sunshine |
| Instrumental | Who? | cat, sparrow, daughter, child | What? | jacket, rye, sunshine |
| Prepositional case | About whom? | about a cat, about a sparrow, about a daughter, about a child | About what? | about the jacket, about the rye, about the sun |
Thus, the case is needed in order for the word to blend harmoniously with other words.
Nominative
Before you can figure out how to determine the case, you need to learn as much as possible about each of them.
The initial form of a noun that answers the questions "who? what?" - this is a form of the nominative case, and many words in this case coincide with the root. By the way, a noun in the nominative case, as a rule, is one of the main members of the sentence.
Indirect Cases
We call everything indirectfive cases except nominative.
- Genitive - was originally a case of kinship: father's son, tree branch, Ford plant. Nouns in this case answer the questions "whom? what?" In modern Russian, this case has acquired additional meanings.
- The dative case (to whom? What?) was called generous in the old days. This is quite understandable, since one of the meanings of this case is the designation of an object, substance, person or phenomenon for the sake of which an action is performed.
- One of the questions in the accusative case is the same as in the genitive, "who?", the other is the same as in the nominative, "what?" A noun in the accusative case names an object, person, substance or phenomenon to which the action expressed by the verb is directed.
- The main meaning of the instrumental case was the designation of the object with which the action is performed. In the old days it was called "weapons".
- Prepositional case (about whom? about what?) is always used only with prepositions. In terms of frequency of use among indirect cases, it ranks first.
How to determine the case?
We found out that six cases are distinguished in Russian. Each of them performs a specific function. In addition, we have analyzed what questions nouns answer in a particular case. However, having understood this, it is not so easy to determine the case in Russian.
To make it easier for students and their parents, we offer a list of helper words that helpcorrectly ask a question to a noun and, therefore, correctly determine the case.
| Case | Word Helper | Question | Examples |
| Nominative | is | Who? What? | soldier, painting, doors, perimeter |
| Genitive | no | Whom? What? | soldier, paintings, doors, perimeter |
| Dative | ran up | To whom? Why? | soldier, painting, doors, perimeter |
| Accusative | see | Whom? What? | soldier, picture, door, perimeter |
| Instrumental | happy | Who? What? | soldier, painting, doors, perimeter |
| Prepositional case | thinking | About whom? About what? | about the soldier, about the painting, about the doors, about the perimeter |
We hope that after reading this article you have no questions left about how to determine the case.
