Grammar is not mathematics: it is better to feel it, not understand it. This app will help you to feel the patterns of Russian cases. It is tested for 90,000 words and processes even arbitrary letter sequences.
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However, if you don't know anything about Russian at all, please read on.
What is gender? What is case?
In Russian sentences, the following word order is often used: subject, verb, object. However, Russian grammar, due to flexion, allows expressing the same with almost arbitrary word order. Sometimes word order is even used to express shades of meaning.
Grammatical functions in a sentence or phrase expressed by nouns (and adjectives agreed with them, as well as by participles and personal pronouns) are called cases. And the process of inflection of these parts of speech is called declension.
Declension depends on the gender of a word. The grammatical gender is a category that is more often associated with how a word sounds than with its meaning, especially when it comes to animals and inanimate things. There are separate names for male and female animals, but different species have different "default" genders that are also used regardless of sex.
There are similar words for people. They have either the masculine, the feminine (rare), or the common gender. The common gender of a noun, unlike other genders, does not affect the gender of agreed adjectives.
In some phrases in colloquial language, sometimes the masculine gender of a noun about a woman is also not transferred to agreed adjectives, and they remain feminine. It looks like a mixture of the masculine gender and the common gender.
So, there are 6 main cases in Russian. Their roles are roughly as follows.
1. Nominative case marks
• a subject of a verb,
• a predicate noun ("is a X"),
• simile ("like a X").
2. Genitive case:
• "something is a property or part of X";
• "a number of X";
• "around/after/from X";
• "beside the X" (у/около/возле);
• "to be inside the X" (внутри);
• "moving into X" (внутрь);
• "moving away from X" (от);
• "moving from within X" (из/изнутри);
• "moving along an extended object" (вдоль);
• "moving towards X" (на).
3. Dative case:
• Recipient
• Beneficiary
• Experiencer
• "moving to X" (к);
• "moving towards X" (навстречу);
• "moving on the surface X" (по).
4. Accusative case:
• indicates a direct object of a verb
("I wrote a letter", "He moved the box");
• "moving into X" (в/во);
5. Instrumental case:
• an instrument of an action;
• an accompanier with the preposition "с".
6. Prepositional case:
• "about the X";
• "beside the X" (при);
• "to be in the X" (в/во);
• "to be on the X" (на).
⸻
However, if you don't know anything about Russian at all, please read on.
What is gender? What is case?
In Russian sentences, the following word order is often used: subject, verb, object. However, Russian grammar, due to flexion, allows expressing the same with almost arbitrary word order. Sometimes word order is even used to express shades of meaning.
Grammatical functions in a sentence or phrase expressed by nouns (and adjectives agreed with them, as well as by participles and personal pronouns) are called cases. And the process of inflection of these parts of speech is called declension.
Declension depends on the gender of a word. The grammatical gender is a category that is more often associated with how a word sounds than with its meaning, especially when it comes to animals and inanimate things. There are separate names for male and female animals, but different species have different "default" genders that are also used regardless of sex.
There are similar words for people. They have either the masculine, the feminine (rare), or the common gender. The common gender of a noun, unlike other genders, does not affect the gender of agreed adjectives.
In some phrases in colloquial language, sometimes the masculine gender of a noun about a woman is also not transferred to agreed adjectives, and they remain feminine. It looks like a mixture of the masculine gender and the common gender.
So, there are 6 main cases in Russian. Their roles are roughly as follows.
1. Nominative case marks
• a subject of a verb,
• a predicate noun ("is a X"),
• simile ("like a X").
2. Genitive case:
• "something is a property or part of X";
• "a number of X";
• "around/after/from X";
• "beside the X" (у/около/возле);
• "to be inside the X" (внутри);
• "moving into X" (внутрь);
• "moving away from X" (от);
• "moving from within X" (из/изнутри);
• "moving along an extended object" (вдоль);
• "moving towards X" (на).
3. Dative case:
• Recipient
• Beneficiary
• Experiencer
• "moving to X" (к);
• "moving towards X" (навстречу);
• "moving on the surface X" (по).
4. Accusative case:
• indicates a direct object of a verb
("I wrote a letter", "He moved the box");
• "moving into X" (в/во);
5. Instrumental case:
• an instrument of an action;
• an accompanier with the preposition "с".
6. Prepositional case:
• "about the X";
• "beside the X" (при);
• "to be in the X" (в/во);
• "to be on the X" (на).
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