Why do you need to decline nouns by case? Noun cases

Nouns are very widely represented in the Russian language. They can act as main and secondary members of a sentence. By using noun cases, speakers and writers can relate these parts of speech to others in the context of a sentence. Another category of a noun is directly related to cases - its declension. By the way, the spelling correctness of what is written depends on the correct definition of which.

Case category

The case of nouns is like this grammatical category, which indicates the relationship of this part of speech to other words in the sentence. These connections can be realized not only with the help of case forms - prepositions help in this, as well as intonation and even word order.

In modern Russian there are only 6 case forms.

Case name	Noun case questions
Nominative
Genitive	Whom? What?
Dative	To whom? Why?
Accusative	Whom? What?
Instrumental
Prepositional	About whom? About what?

Once upon a time in the Old Russian language there was another, seventh, vocative case. But it lost its significance during the development of linguistic culture. Echoes of the vocative case remain in common parlance. Previously, it was comparable to the nominative and denoted the address: father, man. On modern stage development of the Russian language, it is realized in the following colloquial addresses: Sing, Vasya, Tan, etc.

The meaning and form of expression of cases. Nominative

Besides grammatical meaning, cases of nouns have lexical. Let's sort them out.

Nominative. This is the basic form of a noun. Used in academic literature (dictionary entries). In this case there is always a subject, as well as a word in them. n. maybe integral part predicate.

Example: The roses bloomed on time. Subject roses is in the nominative case.

Another example: This tree is birch. Subject tree(Name p., predicate birch- the nominal part of a compound nominal predicate, stands in Im. P.).

Meanings of the genitive case

Genitive. Can associate nouns with various parts speech. So, if the genitive case connects two nouns, then it will mean:

• a substance whose measure is indicated: liter of kvass;
• affiliation: mom's shoes b;
• object of some action: boiling water;
• definition relations: beauty of the fields.

The genitive case is used when comparative degree adjectives: stronger than (who?) a bull. With a cardinal number: thousand (what?) rubles.

As for the verb and verb forms, then this case is applied in the following cases:

• denotes a specific object when associated with a transitive verb: write out a receipt;
• used after verbs such as to fear, to achieve, to lose me and others: seek (what?) permission.

The genitive case is used when reporting exact date. For example: She was born on the sixth (what?) March one thousand nine hundred and eighty-two.

Meanings of the dative and accusative cases

Other cases of nouns are not so rich in lexical meanings and grammatical connections. Thus, the dative case is associated with verbs and some nouns (verbal). Has a side object value: to help parents(compare: help around the house- direct object).

The accusative case indicates that we have a direct object: I'm writing a poem.

Instrumental and prepositional cases

A noun in the instrumental case will have the following meanings:

• weapon or method of action: punch (with what?)(way), hit (with what?) with a hammer(weapon);
• subject performing the action: written (by whom?) by mother; washed with (what?) a rag;
• is part of the nominal part of the predicate: she was (what?) a doctor.

The prepositional case is special, as is clear from its name. It always requires a preposition. May refer to:

• topic of conversation, thoughts, etc.: let's talk (about what?) about Goethe's work; I think (about whom?) about a beautiful stranger;
• temporal and geographical indicators: met (when?) last weekend; work (where?) in a cafe.
• used to indicate a date, but not a full date, but indicating the year: I was born (when?) in nineteen ninety.

Declension of nouns

To write spelling correctly, you need to know not only cases. The declension of nouns has a primary role. There are three types of declension in the Russian language, each of them requires certain endings. To determine whether nouns belong to one of them, case, gender must be known first.

Nouns like homeland, earth, frame, belong to the first declension. They are united by belonging to the feminine gender and endings -а/-я. Also included in these declensions are the few masculine nouns: Vitya, grandfather, dad. In addition to gender, they are united by the endings -a/-я.

The group of masculine nouns is much larger: son-in-law, wolf, sofa. They have a zero ending. Such words belong to the second declension. The same group includes neuter nouns with inflection -о/-е: sea, building, crime.

If you have a feminine noun ending in a soft sign (zero ending), it will belong to the third declension: rye, youth, daughter, brooch.

Nouns can have an adjectival declension, that is, they change by case like adjectives and participles. This includes those who have made the transition from these parts of speech to a noun: living room, greeting.

To determine which cases of nouns are used in a sentence, you need to find the word to which the noun refers and ask a question.

For example, let’s determine the cases and declensions of nouns in a sentence: The motorcyclist was riding on flat ground.

Subject motorcyclist does not refer to any other word, because it is the main member of the sentence, therefore, it is in the nominative case. We determine the declension: the zero ending and the masculine gender indicate that the word has 2 declensions. Noun with preposition by area depends on the word was driving. We ask a question: drove (where?) around the area. This is a matter of prepositional case. Terrain- feminine, ending in b, therefore the third declension.

Declension of singular nouns

To determine with what ending you need to write a noun, you must know gender, number, case and declension. Declension can be hard or soft: a word can end in a soft or hard consonant. For example: lamp- solid type; pot- soft.

Let's give examples of declension of singular nouns and pay attention to endings in some forms.

First declension

	Solid type	Soft type
Nominative			Provocation
Genitive			Provocations
Dative			Provocations
Accusative			Provocation
Instrumental			Provocation
Prepositional			About provocation

Pay attention to the dative and prepositional cases. They require the ending -e. In a noun ending in -iya, on the contrary, in these cases the ending -i should be written.

Second declension

	Masculine		Neuter gender
	Solid type		Solid type	Soft type
Nominative
Genitive
Dative
Accusative
Instrumental
Prepositional

Here we pay attention to the prepositional case: it requires the ending -e. If a noun ends in -й/-и, then it is necessary to write -и in this case.

Third declension

We pay attention to the genitive, dative and prepositional cases: they require the ending -i. It should also be remembered that after sibilants in the singular in this declension it is necessary to write a soft sign. It is not needed in the plural.

Declension of plural nouns

Let's look at the cases of nouns plural.

	1st declension		2nd declension		3rd declension
	Solid type	Soft type	Masculine	Neuter gender
Nominative		Pots
Genitive		Pans
Dative	Pictures	Pots
Accusative		Pots
Instrumental	Paintings	Pots	Barracks
Prepositional	About the paintings	About pans	About the barracks

Nouns in the dative, instrumental and prepositional cases have identical endings.

The endings -и/-ы or -а/-я have plural nouns. The first can be found in all three declensions, the second - in some nouns of the second declension: director, watchman, professor.

To distinguish lexical meanings nouns put in the plural form have different endings: sheet, But leaves (of a tree) And sheets (of a book).

Nouns like treaties, elections, engineers, officers, designers You only need to write with the ending -ы. A different inflection is a violation of the norm.

Indeclinable nouns

In Russian there is unique group nouns When changing by case, they have endings of different declensions. The group includes those words that end in -my (for example, time, stirrup), as well as the word path.

	Singular		Plural
Nominative			stirrups
Genitive	stirrups
Dative	stirrups		stirrups
Accusative			stirrups
Instrumental	stirrup		stirrups
Prepositional	about the stirrup		about stirrups

Like nouns of the 3rd declension, these words in the singular, genitive, dative and prepositional cases require the ending -i.

Immutable nouns

Another special group of nouns is unchangeable. They are not put in number and case form. They always have the same form: without kimono(R.p.) - about kimono(P.p.); new kimono(units) - purchased kimonos(plural).

How to determine in this case how the noun is grammatically expressed? We look at the number and case according to the word to which it refers. Examples:

1. Pedestrians were hurrying along the new highway.

2. New highways have been built.

In the first sentence we determine the number and case of the adjective new(units, d.p.). In the second - also by adjective new(plural, im.p.).

Invariable nouns are usually foreign words, as common nouns ( citro, cafe), and own ( Baku, Hugo). Complex abbreviated words (abbreviations) are also unchangeable. For example: Computer, nuclear power plant.

According to the standards, the Russian language is divided into six cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, prepositional. In order to learn nouns, it is enough to know them and be able to identify them. You can determine the case by a grammatical question placed in front of the word.

I.P. - Who? What?
R.P. - (No) who? What?
D.P. - (Give) to whom? Why?
V.P. - (I see) who? What?
T.P. - (Proud of) who? How?
P.P. - (About) whom? (About what?

Now, in order to learn how to decline correctly, you need to be able to identify a noun.

First declension

The first declension includes feminine nouns with endings - a (-я) and several masculine nouns: dad, uncle, young man. You just need to remember them. Also included in the first declension are nouns ending in –ia.

For example, consider the words horde and commission.

I.P. hord-a, commission-i
R.P. hordes, commissions
D.P. order, commission
V.P. ord-u, commission-yu
T.P. oh, commission
P.P. order, commission

Please note that this noun ending in -a in the nominative case has the ending -e in the dative and prepositional cases, and the noun ending in -(i)ya in the nominative case ends in -i in the same cases. This rule will work with all first declension words.

Second declension

The second declension includes masculine nouns with a zero ending and neuter nouns with the ending –е(-и). For example, table, house, field, sea, core, singing. As you can see, neuter nouns can have a hard or soft base. They have slight differences in the formation of endings during declination.

For example, we can consider the masculine noun wedge and two neuter nouns – bucket and singing.

I.P. wedge (zero ending), bucket-o, penalty-e
R.P. wedge-a, bucket-a, penalty-ya
D.P. wedge, bucket, penalty
V.P. wedge (zero ending), bucket-o, penalty-e
T.P. wedge, bucket, penalty
P.P. wedge, bucket, penalty

Neuter nouns with a hard base have the ending -e in the prepositional case, and - the ending -i. This should be remembered.

Third declension

The third declension includes all feminine nouns with a zero ending and soft sign at the end. This is daughter, mother, night, rye, . They should not be confused with second declension masculine nouns such as ray, knife, .

As an example, we can consider the declension of the noun steppe.

I.P. steppe (zero ending)
R.P. step-i
D.P. step-i
V.P. steppe (zero ending)
T.P. steppe
P.P. step-i

Please note that third declension nouns in the genitive, dative and prepositional cases have the same endings (-i).

Declension of nouns in Russian

Declension is the change of nouns by case. Depending on the set of endings that are inherent in certain nouns, there are three main types of their declension. The nouns m.r. belong to the 1st declension. zero-terminated in initial form, i.e. in I.p. units ( chemist, researcher analysis) and nouns s.r. with endings in -O, -e (substance, field). The words zh.r., m.r. belong to the 2nd declension. And general kind with endings -A, -I (hypothesis, a drop, operation, young man, headman).

Nouns of the 1st and 2nd declension have two types of stems - hard, which includes nouns with a final consonant hard (plant, factory, factory; a game, games, game), and soft with the final consonant soft ( writer, writer, writer; song, songs, song, song).

The words zh.r. belong to the 3rd declension of nouns. with a zero ending in the initial form, therefore having only the soft variety ( thaw, night). (In school practice, the numbering of declension types is different: the 1st declension of nouns includes what is recognized in scientific grammar as the 2nd, and vice versa.)

In addition to these three main types of declension, there is a separate declension of nouns formed from adjectives ( sick, worker and etc.). In table 14 provides examples of the main types of noun declension and comments on them.

A comment. 1. U inanimate nouns m.r. endings and I.p. coincide and V.p. units ( computer, dance). In animate nouns, m.r. ( contract soldier, representative, doctor) the endings in R.p. coincide. and V.p. units ( contract soldier, representative, doctor).

First declension

Masculine and neuter nouns with hard and soft consonants
Singular
Case	Masculine		Neuter gender	Masculine		Neuter gender
	to a hard consonant			to a soft consonant
	contract soldier		device	representative		biofield
	computer			anniversary
	contract soldier		devices	representative		biofields
	computer			anniversary
	contractor		device	representative		biofield
	computer			anniversary
	contract soldier		device	representative		biofield
	computer			anniversary
	contract worker		device	representative		biofield
	computer			anniversary
	(O) contract worker		(about) device	(O) representative		(O) biofield
	(O) computer			(O) anniversary
Case	Plural
	contract soldiers		devices	representatives		biofields
	computers			anniversaries
	contract soldiers		devices	representatives		biofields
	computers			anniversaries
	contract soldiers		devices	representatives		biofields
	computers			anniversaries
	contract soldiers		devices	representatives		biofields
	computers			anniversaries
	contract workers		devices	representatives		biofields
	computers			anniversaries
	(O) contract soldiers		(about) devices	(O) representatives		(O) biofields
	(O) computers			(O) anniversaries
Masculine nouns with stems f, h, w, sch, c and neuter on -ies
Case		Singular			Plural
		Masculine	Neuter gender		Masculine	Neuter gender
		doctor	company		doctors	enterprises
		dance			dancing
		doctor	enterprises		doctors	enterprises
		dance			dancing
		doctor	enterprise		doctors	enterprises
		dance			dancing
		doctor	company		doctors	enterprises
		dance			dancing
		doctor	enterprise		doctors	enterprises
		dance			dancing
		(O) doctor	(O) enterprise		(O) doctors	(O) enterprises
		(O) dance			(O) dancing
Masculine nouns little house, house
Case		Singular			Plural
		little house			little houses
		house			houses
		little house			little houses
		houses			houses
		little house			little houses
		house			houses
		little house			little houses
		house			houses
		little house			little houses
		home			houses
		(O) little house			about the houses
		(O) house			(O) houses

2. Some inanimate nouns may have in R.p. units not just graduations -A (-I), but also -y (Yu). For example, variant endings can receive:

• a) real nouns, when the quantity of something is indicated ( a ton of sugar — sugar, a lot of snow — snow) or the absence of a certain amount (neither grams of sugar — sugar, not a drop of soup- soup); this especially applies to material nouns with diminutive suffixes ( take the honey from the sugar bowl);
• b) abstract nouns in the same cases ( how much noise — noise; not a cry — scream, no noise — noise);
• c) words included in stable combinations (without year week, no laughing matter). Endings -y, -Yu generally characteristic of colloquial speech: And this Marya root — she is so tall... She has the color of a bouquet... Christmastide crimson. Her from cancer drinking...(E. Yevtushenko); Shot down you with no use this teaching — so you wander around the world(V. Shukshin).

3. Nouns m.r. based on and, h, w, sch in T.p. units may have a stressed ending -ohm (doctor) and unstressed -eat (comrade).

4. Nouns m.r. based on ts in T.p. have a stressed ending -ohm (the end) and unstressed -eat (.finger), in R.p. plural have a stressed ending -s (after all) and unstressed -ev (dancing).

5. Nouns s.r. based on ts in I.p. and so on. units have when accented on the ending, respectively -O (ring) And -ohm (ring), not at the end -e (Sun) And -eat (the sun).

6. Some inanimate nouns in pp. units with a pretext V when indicating being inside something and with a preposition on when indicating the presence of something on the surface, they can have endings -y (-Yu) (In the woods, in service, on the shore). Endings -y (-Yu) always drums.

Note. To the most common nouns m.r., having in P.p. units graduation -y (-Yu) (there are only about 200 of them), include: shore, board(ship), forest, bridge, port, row, garden,corner (in the corner of the room, on the street corner), closet (in the closet, on the wardrobe). If there are variant endings -e, -y some words (" vacation — on vacation, in the workshop- V workshop, in the cold — in the cold) the first is neutral in nature, the second is colloquial.

7. Nouns m.r. based on -th (sanatorium) in P.p. units have an ending -And (in a sanatorium, about genius).

8. Nouns m.r. on G, To, X in I.p. plural end with -And (mechanic, mechanics).

A number of nouns m.r. in I.p. plural has stressed endings - A (-I): side — sides, address — addresses, director — director. To the most common nouns that are consistently received in I.p. plural ending -A (-I) relate: address, shore, side, camp, master, number, order, island, passport, train, Professor, volume, color. There are cases of hesitation in the choice of variant endings: years — of the year, inspectors — inspector, spotlights — spotlights, sectors — sectors, locksmiths — locksmith, turners — turner, poplars — poplars, tractors — tractors, anchors — anchors If there are fluctuations in use -s (-And) — A (-I) the latter are more typical of everyday or professional speech. At the same time, you should not mix variant forms that differ in meaning: images(artistic and literary) and image(icons), teachers(ideological leaders) and teachers(teachers), flowers(plants) and colors(coloring), etc.

9. Individual nouns have non-standard forms I.p. plural: Brother — brothers, Englishman — English, kitty — kittens, Human — People, child — children.

10. Some groups of nouns m.r. in R.p. plural have the form I.p. units (no ending). Such groups are made up of: 1) individual names of persons by nationality O Buryat, Georgian,Lezgin, Turk, Gypsy; But Arabs,Mongols); 2) individual names of persons associated with military service ( hussar, partisans, soldier; But captains, majors); 3) separate names of units of measurement when indicating their quantity ( ampere, watt, volt, hertz, ohm, x-ray).

In the case of hesitations of forms with zero endings and -s, the first is characteristic of colloquial speech, and the latter - strictly literary language (hectare, -s; apricot, -s).

Second declension

Feminine, masculine and common nouns with endings -A (-I)
Case	Basic samples			Nouns on -and I and with the base on g, k, x, c, w, h, their, sch
Singular
	star man headman		fable	company disco	bird young man
	stars men prefects		fables	companies discos	birds young men
	star man headman		fable	companies disco	bird young man
	star man headman		fable	company disco	bird young man
	star a man headman		fable	company disco	bird young men
	(O) star (O) man (O) headman		(O) fable	(O) companies (O) disco	(O) bird (O) young man
Plural
		stars men prefects	fables	companies discos	birds young men
		stars men prefects	fables	companies discos	birds young men
		to the stars men elders	fables	companies discos	birds young men
		stars men prefects	fables	companies discos	birds young men
		stars men prefects	fables	companies discos	birds young men
		(O) stars (O) men (O) elders	(O) fables	(O) companies (O) discos	(O) birds (O) young men

A comment. For nouns in T.p. units endings vary -Ouch (-to her) And -oh (-by her) (hand, bird —hand, bird). The latter forms are usually found in poetry.

Third declension

Declension of feminine nouns into -ь
Case	Singular		Plural
	model	night	models	nights
	models	nights	models	nights
	models	nights	models	at night
	model	night	models	nights
	model	at night	models	nights
	(O) models	(O) nights	(O) models	(O) at night

A comment(all types of declination).

1. Inanimate nouns of all genders have the same endings in I.p. and V.p. plural ( computers, stars, discos, devices, biofields, nights). In inanimate nouns, m.p. and f.r. the endings in R.p. coincide and V.p. plural ( contract soldiers, representatives, doctors; young men; birds).

2. When used after transitive verbs of the perfect form, nouns in the form are not V.p., but R.p. indicates the use not of the entire item (product), but only of its part: buy sugar(all) - sugar(some part); take candy(All) - sweets(some of them).

3. When declension of nouns, alternations of sounds are observed. The most common of them include: a) alternating a vowel with a zero sound: O (e) — null ( forehead - forehead, forehead, forehead; ice - ice, ice, ice); e - null ( pepper - pepper, pepper, pepper; guy - guy, guy, guy); zero - o (e) (window - windows, glass - glass); zero - e (ring - rings, heart - hearts, friends of friends, land - lands, village - villages); b) alternation of consonant with consonant ( bitch - bitch, friend - friends).

Nouns having case endings, characteristic of different types declinations are called heterodeclinable. These include 10 nouns s.r. on -me (burden, time, udder, banner, Name, flame, tribe, seed, stirrup And crown) and the noun m.r. path, having in R.p., D.p. and P.p. units endings of 3rd declension nouns -And (no time, to the banner, in flames; on my way), and in T.p. - nouns m.r. type ship, sable (time, banner; by). Nouns on -me in R.p., D.p., T.p. and P.p. in units additionally receive a suffix -en- (-yon-) (banner — on the banner, on the banners), nouns seed, stirrup in R.p. plural - suffix -yan (seeds). Samples of declension of such nouns are given in table. 17.

Minor types of noun declension

Neuter nounsbanner
Case	Singular	Plural
	banner	banners
	banner	banners
	banner	banners
	banner	banners
	banner	banners
	(O) banner	(O) banners
Masculine nounspath
Case	Singular	Plural
	path	ways
	ways	ways
	ways	ways
	path	ways
	by	ways
	(O) ways	(O) ways
Russian , alien
Case	Singular	Plural
	Russian, alien	Russians, aliens
	Russian, alien	Russians, aliens
	to a Russian, to an alien	Russians, aliens
	Russian, alien	Russians, aliens
	Russian, alien	Russians, aliens
	(O) Russians, (about) alien	(O) Russians, (about) aliens
Feminine nounsmother Anddaughter
Case	Singular	Plural
	mother, daughter	mothers, daughters
	mothers, daughters	mothers, daughters
	mothers, daughters	mothers, daughters
	mother, daughter	mothers, daughters
	mother, daughter	mothers, daughters (-yami)
	(O) mothers, daughters	(O) mothers, daughters
Masculine nounswolf cub, fox cub
Case	Singular	Plural
	wolf cub, little fox	wolf cubs, fox cubs
	wolf cub, little fox	wolf cubs, fox cubs
	wolf cub, little fox	wolf cubs, fox cubs
	wolf cub, little fox	wolf cubs, fox cubs
	wolf cub, little fox	wolf cubs, fox cubs
	(O) wolf cub, little fox	(O) wolf cubs, fox cubs
Nouns likehalf an hour
Case	Singular
	half an hour
	half an hour
	half an hour
	half an hour
	half an hour
	(O) half an hour
Nouns,having endings of adjectives and participles
Masculine
Case	Singular	Plural
	new Russian, Russian speaking	new Russians, Russian speakers
	new Russian, Russian speaking	new Russians, Russian speakers
	new Russian, Russian speaking	new Russians, Russian speakers
	How I.p. or R.p.
	new Russians, Russian speakers	new Russians, Russian speaking
	(O) new Russian, (O) Russian speaking	(O) new Russians, (O) Russian speakers
Neuter gender
Case	Singular	Plural
	predicate, subject	predicates, subject
	predicate, subject	predicates, subject to
	predicate, subject	predicate, subject to
	predicate, subject	predicates, subject
	predicate, subject to	predicates, subject to
	(O) predicate, (O) subject	(O) predicates, (O) subject to
Feminine
Case	Singular	Plural
	comma, employee	commas, employees
	comma, employee	commas, employees
	comma, employee	comma, employees
	comma, employee	commas, employees
	comma, employee	commas, employees
	(O) comma, (O) employee	(O) commas, (O) employees
Declension of surnames into-in And-ev
Case	Singular	Plural
	Yudin, Andreev	Yudin, Andreevs
	Yudina, Andreeva	Yudinykh, Andreevs
	Yudin, Andreev	Yudin, Andreev
	Yudina, Andreeva	Yudinykh, Andreevs
	Yudin, Andreev	Yudins, Andreevs
	(O) Yudina, (about) Andreev	(O) Yudinykh, (about) Andreevs

Education

What is noun declension? Cases in Russian

March 3, 2016

Not only schoolchildren and students of linguistic disciplines wonder what the declension of nouns is. After all grammatically correct speech and spelling is not the whim of teachers and not the privilege of philologists. The question of what is the declension of nouns in the Russian language can be answered in different ways, because this word has several, albeit similar, but still different meanings. Let's start with short excursion into etymology.

What is noun declension?

First, let's look at the origin of the term. The word "declension" is a calque of the Latin declinatio, which means "deviation." This is not surprising, since the inflection is a kind of anomaly in comparison with the basic form of the noun. However, the category “declension” does not only mean the process of word transformation itself. It is also a certain type of noun, similar to change according to the same pattern. There are three main declensions in the Russian language, but there are words that do not belong to any of the categories.

How do nouns change?

The parts of speech that interest us, with rare exceptions, are declined in number and case. With the first criterion everything is very simple - it shows the number of designated items. The number can be singular or plural. In the first case, we are dealing with nouns that denote only one object. For example: garden, hearth. The plural includes words indicating several objects (gardens, hearths). There are also exceptions.

Thus, in the Russian language there is a place for nouns that have only a singular form (the so-called singularia tantum). Example - milk, fame. In the same way, there are nouns that have only a plural form (which are called pluralia tantum). In this case, an example can be given the following words: darkness, scissors.

Video on the topic

What is the declension of nouns by case?

Now let's consider another possible change in the parts of speech that interest us. Declension means adapting a noun for use with other words. This category also shows syntactic role inflected parts of speech in a sentence. In most cases, to decline by case means to change the ending of a word. However, this ability does not belong only to this type of transformation of nouns.

The term "case" comes from the Latin cadere - to fall. There are direct and indirect cases. The first of these is the “normal” version of the word. This is certainly nominative, and in some cases accusative. The second represents a “deviation” from the norm. This category includes all remaining variants of noun declension.

What cases are there?

In total there are 6 in the Russian case possible options changing nouns to link them with other words. The first of these is the nominative case. As stated above, this is the “correct” natural shape words, in Latin it is called a nominative. The genitive case, called the genitive, indicates belonging to someone or something, the dative (dative) - the object to which the action is directed. The accusative is similar to the first, nominative, however, it has its own peculiarity. It is used after transitive verbs to indicate a direct object. In Latin it is called accusative. The instrumental case (or instrumentality) most often indicates the method, the instrument of action. In addition, it is used after such verbs: manage, engage, own. And finally, the last, prepositional case is the prepositive. It indicates a place, time, subject of speech or thought, and is used only with prepositions.

We looked at all declension options in the Russian language. There may be differences with other languages. So, for example, in English speech nouns have only two cases. The first of them, the general one, is the usual way of using words. The second, possessive case, indicates, firstly, only animate nouns, which certainly mean Living being. Secondly, the subject must own some thing, attribute or quality. The possessive case is formed using a special ending - “s”. Other languages ​​have other features.

How to decline nouns by case?

This is not difficult to do. It is enough to know the so-called case questions, which allow us to identify Russian cases. The table below contains all the necessary data.

It should be noted that the information provided applies to all nouns, both singular and plural. Almost all words of the part of speech we are considering are declined in cases. But there are also exceptions.

What nouns are not declined?

There are many words in the Russian language that are of foreign origin (for example, highway, jalousie). Some of them do not change either by case or by number. In addition, they belong to the category of so-called indeclinable nouns. Surnames ending in -о, -ы (-ы) also remain unchanged. This category also includes complex abbreviated words (for example, deputy director).

What are the declensions of nouns?

As mentioned above, the term we are revealing indicates not only the process of change and its paths, but also generalized types of words that have the same modification models. There are three declensions of nouns in the Russian language. Determine which one to belong to specific word, grammatical gender and ending in the nominative singular helps. You can clearly see the existing declinations and their characteristics in the table below.

Case	1st declension (singular)	2nd declension (singular)	3rd declension (singular)	plural
Nominative	mom, uncle	lake, field, horse		Y, -i, -a, -i mothers, uncles, lakes, fields, horses, steppes
Genitive	mothers, uncles	lakes, fields, horse		Ov, -ev, -ey, - mother, uncle, lakes, fields, horses, steppes
Dative	mom, uncle	lake, field, horse		mothers, uncles, lakes, fields, horses, steppes
Accusative	mom, uncle	lake, field, horse		Y, -i, -a, -i, -ey, - mom, uncle, lakes, fields, horses, steppes
Instrumental	Oh (oh), -ey (oh) mom (mom), uncle (uncle)	lake, field, horse		Ami, -yami mothers, uncles, lakes, fields, horses, steppes
Prepositional	mom, uncle	lake, field, horse		mothers, uncles, lakes, fields, horses, steppes

Are there exceptions to the rule?

Not all nouns fit the description of any of the above types of declension. There are 4 exceptions in total. The first of them is the inflexible words we discussed earlier. The second exception is nouns that are similar to adjectives. And they bow in the same way as the last ones. Such words are also called nouns of the adjectival declension. For example: passerby, bathroom. The third curiosity is indeclinable nouns. Their peculiarity is that in different cases they have endings that are not inherent in any of the three types declination. These include words: path, burden, seed, udder, time and others. And finally, the fourth exception is nouns inflected as pronouns (draw).

How are words with the component “sex-” declined?

Such nouns have their own characteristics. In these words, the component “pol-” in indirect cases, with the exception of the accusative, changes to “semi-”. The second half, that is, the noun, changes according to general rules. Don't bow Difficult words with the “gender-” component, in which the main part indicates an animate object, for example: half a horse, half a goat.

Now, after considering all aspects of the topic in great detail, we should summarize. Declension of nouns is a complex linguistic category, which means a certain model of transformation of words, as well as the process of changing them according to cases and numbers. Children should know the basic rules of correct and competent declension from school. And, of course, do not forget them when you become adults, even if their profession is not related to philology.