There are six cases in Russian: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, and prepositional.

1. The nominative case answers the questions "who?" or "what? It is an initial form. All dictionaries give nouns in the nominative.

Студент читает   The student is reading.

cтудент --> cтудент (no change)

2. The genitive case is used to show that something (somebody) belongs or refers to something (somebody). It can be translated by "of" in English.

берег реки   the bank of the river

река --> реки (the ending -a becomes -и)

3. The dative case designates that something is given or addressed to the person (object).

Я иду к врачу   I go to the doctor Я даю это другу   I give it to the friend

врач --> врачу (the ending -у is added) друг --> другу

4. The accusative case designates the object of an action.

Я читаю газету   I read the newspaper Я встретил друга   I met the friend

газета --> газету (the ending -а becomes -у) друг --> друга (the ending -а is added)

5. The instrumental case is used to denote an instrument that helps to make something.

Я пишу карандашом   I write with a pencil

карандаш --> карандашом (the ending -ом is added)

6. The prepositional case is used to designate a place, or a person (object) that is an object of speech and thought. This case is always used with a preposition.

Она мечтает о лете   She dreams about the summer Цветы стоят на столе   The flowers are on the table

лето --> лете (the ending -о becomes -е) стол --> столе (the ending -е is added)

Very often the case of a noun is connected with a preposition which stands before it. The nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals may have different case forms in the sentence. Thus, to understand Russian speech and speak Russian correctly, it is necessary to learn how to use cases in Russian. You will learn more about cases in further lessons.

Cases in Russian

Russian grammar uses the case system. The case system is also used in languages like Latin, Greek and German. In fact it was also used in Old English. In Russian there are six cases. To help you understand what cases are we will compare them to English...

In English the subject of the sentence must be first noun. For example...

‘Ivan gives flowers to Anna’. (Иван даёт цветы Анне)

In English it makes no sense to swap the position of the words ‘Ivan’ and ‘flowers’. The meaning of the sentence would be completely changed. In Russian it is possible to change the order of these words, and still keep the same meaning. You may wish to do this to emphasise something. Although

it is common in Russian to use a similar word order to English. The Russian word’s position is not so important because it’s meaning in the sentence is indicated by it’s case. To indicate each case we change the ending of word. Lets look at the six cases (You don’t need to remember this yet):

Nominative case : The subject of the sentence. (“Ivan”) Accusative case: The object of the sentence. (“flowers”) Dative case: The indirect object of the sentence (“Anna”) Genitive case: Indicates ownership. (Eg. “Anna’s flowers”) Instrumental case: Indicates ‘with’ or ‘by means of’. (“Anna writes with a pencil”) Prepositional case: Used after certain propositions. (In, on, at, and about.)

For example the word Anna in the six different cases would be: Nominative case: Анна Accusative case: Анну Dative case: Анне (to Anna) Genitive case: Анны (Anna’s) Instrumental case: Анной (with Anna) Prepositional case: Анне (about Anna)

Now, let's look at an example of how the word поезд changes depending on the case. The stressed vowels are underlined:

много поездов (a lot of trains) - the genitive ехать поездом (to go by train) - the instrumental

Usage of Cases in Russian

In Russian, it is the case of a noun that shows what role the noun plays in a sentence. The table below shows how the noun Алексей (a male name) changes by cases.

CASES	EXAMPLE SENTENCES	ENGLISH EQUIVALENTS
Nominative	Это Алексей.	This is Alexey.
Genitive	Мы изучаем таблицу Алексея.	We are studying Alexey's chart.
Dative	Ученик дал Алексеютаблицу.	A student gave a chart to Alexey.
Accusative	Анна ждёт Алексея.	Ann is waiting for Alexey.
Instrumental	Таблица написана Алексеем.	A chart is written by Alexey.
Prepositional	Друзья говорят об Алексее.	Friends are talking about Alexey.

First, you may see how important case endings are to show the role of a noun. Note, that the contrasting English equivalents have the name Alexey unchanged.

Second, it should be mentioned that the word order does not affect the meaning of a sentence significantly. For example, the sentence Анна ждёт Алексея has the same meaning as Алексея ждёт Анна as long as you use the accusative of Алексей.

The Genitive Case

The genitive case is used in the sentences like "Каковы свойства ..."(What are the properties of ...). The English equivalent of the genitive case is the preposition "of". The nouns in the genitive answer such questions asКого? Чего? (Of whom? Of what?).

Свойствачего?	Свойстваметалла.	-	The properties of what?	The properties of metal.
Это берегчего?	Это берегреки.	-	This is the bank of what?	This is the bank of the river.
Это книгачья?	Это книгаЛены.	-	Whose this book is?	This is Lena's book.

The main role of the genitive is to show where the person or thing belongs to or what it relates to. For example: крыша дома (the roof of the house),пачка чая (the pack of tea).

Remember: Numerals 2, 3, 4 and their compounds are always followed by the genitive singular case. Example: два дома, двадцать три дома

Usage of the Genitive case

The genitive is usually used with the following prepositions: без, для, до, из, из-за, из-под, кроме, на, от, с, со, у, около, вокруг, недалеко от, позади, напротив, посреди, мимо, вдоль. However you should know that the genitive is not the only case used with these prepositions.

без воды		without water
для Вани		for Vanya
до окна		to the window
для чая		for tea

The genitive is used after the verbs просить, хотеть, требовать, искать, ждать, достигать, желать, бояться  with nouns designating abstract and indefinite objects. For example:

Учитель просит внимания.		The teacher calls for attention.
Розы боятся холода.		The roses are afraid of cold.

The genitive is also used after the words нет, не было, не будет. For example:

У него не было денег.		He did not have money.
У меня нет брата.		I do not have a brother.