Viewing topic: Russian Case System - basic introduction

Below are the cases with their most common uses and some example sentences. Corrections welcomed, this is as much a useful exercise for me as anything else. Hope someone finds it useful, though I'm sure there are much better explanations out there


Nominative - The basic form of the noun that you'll find listed in the dictionary. Usually the subject of the verb in sentences.

Ìàøà ëþáèò Ñàøó => Masha loves Sasha


Accusative - Generally the object of 'simple' verbs if they don't need a special case. Note that thanks to the case system, word order can usually change completely without affecting meaning.

Feminine -a endings turn to -y:

Ñàøó ëþáèò Ìàøà => It's Masha that loves Sasha (no difference from above, just a change in emphasis).

Ìàøà ÷èòàåò êíèãó => Masha's reading a book.

Male animate ('alive') nouns (people, mainly) get -a added (called the animate accusative, actually the same as genitive endings)

Ìàøà ëþáèò Âàäèìà => Masha loves Vadim

Âàäèì ëþáèò ÷àé => Vadim loves tea.

Âàäèì ÷èòàåò æóðíàë => Vadim's reading a magazine.


Genitive - Mainly works like the preposition 'of' in English, typical use is to show possession. Also used after some prepositions, including those meaning 'from'.

Ðîäèòåëè Ìàøè => The parents of Masha, i.e. 'Masha's parents'.

Íîìåð òåëåôîíà => The number of the telephone, i.e. telephone number. - "Êàêîé ó Âàñ íîìåð òåëåôîíà?" - What's your phone number?

Èñòîðèÿ ëþáâè => A story of love.

With prepositions:

Ïèñüìî îò Àìåðèêè => A letter from America (anyone know the Proclaimers?!)

Ïîäàðîê èç Àíãëèè => A present from England.


Dative - Indicates 'to'. Tricky to explain, easier to give examples:

×òî òû ñäåëàë êîøêå? => What did you do *to* the cat?

ß îòïðàâèë ïèñüìî ïðåçèäåíòó => I sent a letter *to* the president.

Also goes with the preposition 'ê', meaning 'to' or 'towards':

Èäè ê ìàìå => Go (or come!) *to* mother.

Ïðèêðåïèòü ê ñòåíå => Attach *to* the wall.


Instrumental - Indicates 'with' or 'by', i.e. the instrument used in an action.

ß ïèøó êàðàíäàøîì/ðó÷êîé => I'm writing/I write *with* a pencil/pen. A bit like 'I write penwise'!

Also goes with the preposition 'ñ', meaning 'with':

ß ñ Âëàäèìèðîì => I'm with Vladimir.

ß ñ Ìàøåé => I'm with Masha.

×òî òû ñäåëàë ñ êîøêîé? => What did you do with the cat? Most likely to mean 'where the hell is the cat'


Prepositional - Also called 'Locative', goes with prepositions of place. As far as I can remember, it never appears without a preposition.

ß â øêîëå => I'm in the school (at school)

ß íà êðûøå => I'm on the roof


That's a very basic intro - maybe not the clearest as I've mixed masculine with feminine nouns, but I hope someone will find it useful all the same. Note that the above only deals with singular nouns - plurals are different. Didn't want to scare anyone. Corrections, comments welcomed!

Thanks for that post bobs! Very useful indeed.

I've been using the New Penguin Russian Course, which I think gives a good description of each of the cases fairly early on. However, its hard to take it all in when you're given the exceptions etc all at once.

I'd be interested to hear what resources others use and recommend for learning Russian. I've been using Pimsleur too, but I think that this would be quite ineffective on its own as it doesn't teach you much about grammar or spelling. Much more useful in conjunction with a grammar textbook. Any thoughts?

Good way of learning grammar is translation, as you're doing already. Easy way of remembering cases is listening to music & learning the lyrics - that's how I got my head round some of the harder stuff. That way I found that you don't actually need to think exactly which case to use, it just 'comes to you'.

Spelling - uhh... Mine's not so good either. Only way I think you can learn spelling is to write and have your mistakes corrected by someone else. For me it doesn't go in any other way. If I find mistakes (caused by errors) myself and correct them, I find it doesn't 'stick'.

Reading might help a bit, but it's not the same.

Try starting with reading kids' stories! Just the same way children learn their native language. Helped me

I have been using an excellent site which works very well for us Russian Language beginners. Langintro.com is simple and has an audio function which lets you hear each letter and word. I would recommend it for any beginner.

Longers, I don't think that there is a better book out there than New Penguin Russia Course, especially for self learners. I have used just about everything that comes my way though. Even a Berlitz book I found used somewhere. I have picked CD's free on the internet. Including entire Pimsleur and Learn In Your Car courses. One just has to keep one's eye out!