In Russian grammar, the system of declension is elaborate and complex. Nouns, pronouns, adjectives, demonstratives, most numerals and other particles are declined for two grammatical numbers (singular and plural) and six grammatical cases ; some of these parts of speech in the singular are also declined by three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine and neuter). This gives many spelling combinations for most of the words, which is needed for grammatical agreement within and (often) outside the proposition. Also, there are several paradigms for each declension with numerous irregular forms.
Russian has retained more declensions than many other modern Indo-European languages (English, for example, has almost no declensions remaining in the language).
Nouns Nominal declension comprises six cases – nominative, accusative, genitive, prepositional, dative, instrumental, two numbers (singular and plural), and three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter). Up to ten additional cases are identified in linguistics textbooks, Zaliznyak A. A. "Русское именное словоизменение." Moscow: Nauka, 1967 Uspenskij V. A. "К определению падежа по А. Н. Колмогорову // Бюллетень объединения по проблемам машинного перевода." Issue. 5. Moscow., 1957 online copy Klobukov E. V. "Семантика падежных форм в современном русском литературном языке. (Введение в методику позиционного анализа)" Moscow: Moscow State University Press, 1986. although all of them are either incomplete (do not apply to all nouns) or degenerate (appear identical to one of the six simple cases). The most recognized additional cases are locative ( — in the forest, on the bridge, in (the) blood), partitive ( — (some) tea, sugar, cognac), and several forms of vocative ( — (O) Lord, God, father). The adjectives, pronouns, and the first two cardinal numbers further vary by gender. Old Russian also had a third number, the dual, but it has been lost except for its use in the nominative and accusative cases with the numbers two, three and four (e.g. , "two chairs", now reanalyzed as genitive singular).
Russian noun cases often replace the usage of prepositions in other Indo-European languages. Their usage can be summarised as: Nominative – the “subject” case Accusative – the “direct object” case Genitive – corresponding to the possessive case or “of + (noun)” Prepositional – used with certain prepositions, such as “in”, “on” etc. Dative – corresponding to “to + (noun)" or the indirect object Instrumental – denoting an instrument used in an action
There are no articles, neither definite nor indefinite (such as the, a, an in English), in the Russian language. The sense of a noun is determined from the context in which it appears. That said, there are some means of expressing whether a noun is definite or indefinite. They are: The use of a direct object in the genitive instead of the accusative in negation signifies that the noun is indefinite, compare: "" ("I don't see a book" or "I don't see any books") and "" ("I don't see the book"). The use of the numeral one sometimes signifies that the noun is indefinite, e.g.: "?" – "" ("Why did it take you so long?" – "Well, I met one [=a] friend and had to talk"). Word order may also be used for this purpose, compare "" ("Into the room rushed a boy") and "" ("The boy rushed into the room"). The plural form may signify indefiniteness: "" ("You can buy this in shops") vs. "" ("You can buy this in the shop").
The category of animacy is relevant in Russian nominal and adjectival declension. Specifically, the accusative has two possible forms in many paradigms, depending on the animacy of the referent. For animate referents (sentient species, professions and occupations, human-like toys, most animals), the accusative form is generally identical to the genitive form (genitive-accusative syncretism). For inanimate referents (simple lifeforms, objects, states, notions), the accusative form is identical to the nominative form (nominative-accusative syncretism). This principle is relevant for masculine singular nouns of the second declension (see below) and adjectives, and for all plural paradigms (with no gender distinction). In the tables below, this behavior is indicated by the abbreviation N or G in the row corresponding to the accusative case.
In Russian there are three declensions: The first declension is used for feminine nouns ending with and some masculine nouns having the same form as those of feminine gender, such as "papa" or "uncle"; also there are common-gender nouns like "teaser" which are masculine or feminine depending on the person they refer to. The second declension is used for most masculine and neuter nouns. The third declension is used for feminine nouns ending in ь.
There is also a group of several irregular "different-declension nouns" (), consisting of a few neuter nouns ending in (e.g. "time") and one masculine noun "way". However, these nouns and their forms have sufficient similarity with feminine third declension nouns that some scholars such as LitnevskayaЕ. И. Литневская. Русский язык. Краткий теоретический курс для школьников БСМП «ЭЛЕКС-Альфа», 2000 consider them to be non-feminine forms of this declension, as written in the tables below.
Nouns ending with (not to be confused with nominalized adjectives) are written with instead of in Prepositional: – "streaming – in lower streaming of a river". (As none of these endings are ever stressed, due to vowel reduction the pronunciation difference between and may be hardly noticeable in fluent speech.) But if the words and are representing compound prepositions meaning "while, during the time of", they are written with -е: "in the course of an hour". For nouns ending in , , or , using in the Prepositional (where endings of some of them are stressed) is usually erroneous, but in poetic speech it may be acceptable (as we replace with for metric or rhyming purposes): (F. Tyutchev).
First declension The first declension group belongs to nouns with the ending -а and -я. These nouns are typically feminine, but include masculine nouns that have a feminine ending as well.masterrussian.com/aa052000a.shtml
Singular Plural Nominative 1 Accusative N or G Genitive 1 – Prepositional Dative Instrumental 2 3
After a sibilant (ж, ч, ш, щ) or a velar (, or ) consonant, is written. After a sibilant or , is written when stressed; when unstressed. After a soft consonant, is written when stressed; when unstressed.
Examples: – a work/job, – a bathhouse, – a book, – a line
Note: In the instrumental case, and instead of and endings may be encountered in the singular.
Singular Plural Nominative Accusative Genitive Prepositional Dative Instrumental
Second declension – masculine nouns
Nouns ending in a consonant are marked in the following table with – (thus no ending). Singular Plural Nominative – 1 5 Accusative N or G N or G Genitive 2 3 Prepositional Dative Instrumental 4 3
Notes: After a sibilant ()Le Fleming, Svetlana & Kay, Susan E. Colloquial Russian: the Complete Course for Beginners, Routledge, 2007 , page25 or a velar (, or ) consonant, is written. Some words have the stressed ending ( — — , etc.). After a sibilant, is written. After a soft consonant, is written when stressed; when unstressed. After a sibilant or , is written when stressed; when unstressed. Some words have the stressed ending ( — , etc.).
Examples: – a film/movie, – a writer, – a hero, – a comment
+ Singular Plural Nominative Accusative Genitive Prepositional Dative Instrumental
Second declension – neuter nouns Nouns ending in -о and -е are neuter.
Singular Plural Nominative 1 2 Accusative N or G Genitive – / 4 Prepositional 3 Dative Instrumental 1 2 After a sibilant or , is written when stressed; when unstressed. After a soft consonant, is written when stressed; when unstressed. For nouns ending in in the nominative singular, is written (but when stressed — for the word ). After a consonant use otherwise use . Also: some masculine nouns ending in in the nominative singular (, diminutive from 'house'); there is only one masculine noun ending in in this declension: .
Examples – a place, – a sea, – a building
Singular Plural Nominative Accusative Genitive Prepositional Dative Instrumental
Third declension The third declension is for predominantly feminine nouns, or with a non-standard termination as shown with exceptional words: дитя ('child', archaic) and путь ('path').
Singular Plural Feminine Neuter Masculine Feminine Neuter Masculine Nominative Accusative N or G Genitive Prepositional 1 Dative 1 Instrumental 1 ()
After a sibilant, is written.
Examples: (f) – a bone, (f) – a mouse, (n) – a name
Singular Plural Nominative Accusative Genitive Prepositional Dative Instrumental
Irregular plural forms There are various kinds of irregularities in forming plurals. Some words have an irregular plural form, but a few use suppletion, being substituted by a different root altogether. Historically, some of these irregularities come from older declensional patterns that have become mostly obsolete in modern Russian.
Singular Plural Change of root/ suppletion (m) – child (m) – human → for animals' children (m) – child (m) – calf (m) – wolf cub Old nouns (suffix is added) (n) – miracle (n) – sky (f) – mother (f) – daughter (m) – son (also in certain cases) (m) – godfather Remnants of the dual number (n) – knee (n) – shoulder (n) – ear (n) – eyelid (n) – apple Plural in (m) – brother (m) – baulk, timber (m) – count (f) – bunch (m) – brother-in-law (n) – tree (n) – bottom (m) – friend (n) – link (m) – son-in-law (m) – wedge (m) – shred, scrap (m) – prince (m) – stake (m) – ear of a plant (n) – wing (m) – leaf 1 (m) – husband (n) – feather (n) – log (m) – runner, coluber (n) – broom (m) – twig (m) – confrere, fellow (m) – scab (m) – chair (m) – branch (branches, as a collective noun) (several individual branches) (m) – awl (m) – brother-in-law (n) – ship Loses a suffix (m) – flower (flowers, as a collective noun) (several individual flowers)Others (m) – owner, host (m) – neighbor
If the word has the lexical meaning "sheet (of paper, metal, etc)", then its declension is normal ( → ). If it has lexical meaning "leaf (of a tree)", its declension is → .
Indeclinable nouns Some nouns (such as borrowings from other languages, abbreviations, etc.) are not modified when they change number and case. This appears mostly when their gender appears to have no ending in any declension which suits the final part of the word: these are masculine names on vowels different from , female names on hard consonants (names like "Trish" will not take the soft sign to go into the third declension like native "mouse"). Most borrowed words ending in Russian in and stressed а are not declined:Несклоняемые существительные // Словарь-справочник лингвистических терминов. Изд. 2-е. — М.: Просвещение. Розенталь Д. Э., Теленкова М. А.. 1976. , (), etc. Most abbreviations are undeclined (one exception is ). The name is also undeclined, despite ending on a consonant.
Many people also think that Georgian surnames on like () shouldn't be declined since they are originally something like Russian possessive genitives.
Personal names Traditionally, a full Russian name consists of a person name ( – given name or first name), patronym ( – father's name as middle name) and a family name ( – surname or last name). All of these words have the same grammatical gender as biological one. Slavic, as well as Greek, Roman, Jewish and other person names of European or Semitic origin loaned centuries ago, have gender-specific versions of respective patronyms. To produce a patronym, suffixes and are used with final vowel addition or modification: for hard consonant ( ⇐ son/daughter of ), for ( ⇐ ), and for other cases ( ⇐ , ⇐ ). Some person names also have versions for both males and females ( – – ).