Parts of speech are studied in elementary school. Some of them are combined into special groups according to special characteristics. Pronoun, numeral, noun and adjective are included in the group of declined parts of speech, that is, variable in numbers and cases. You need to understand what declension is in order to correctly write the endings of the forms of one word, changing in cases.

How to determine the case of a noun - learning to determine the declension

The Russian language divides all nouns into 3 declensions:

• Type 1 - words m.r. and g.r. ending in -а or -я. For example, Rainbow, road, snake, track.
• Type 2 - words m.r. and Wed p. ending in -o or -e or having a zero ending. For example, education, House, oatmeal.
• Type 3 - words of f.r. ending in a soft sign. They have a zero ending. For example, doe, tribute, spruce, night.

Words of the same type of declension have the same endings when changed in cases. Therefore, when doubts arise in the spelling of case endings, you need to look at the change rules for the entire declension group to which the word belongs.

How to determine the case of a noun - case features

• We ask the question to the noun from those members of the sentence with which it is associated.
• Nominative - questions who? what? For example, medicine man, forest... You can use an additional word: ( there is) who? – medicine man, (is) what? - Forest.
• Questions whom? what? answers the genitive case with an additional word No... For example, ( no) who? - medicine man, (no) what? - forests.
• Dative. Questions are asked about the noun to whom? what? with an additional word to give... For example, (to give) to whom? - to the medicine man, (to give) what? - forest.
• Accusative. Using questions whom? what? with an additional word see... For example, ( see) whom? - witch doctor, (see) what? - Forest.
• Instrumental. Asking questions by whom? how?... You can use an additional word admire... For example, ( admire) who? - a medicine man, (to admire) what? - forest.
• The last, Prepositional case, answers the questions about whom? about what? with the word think... For example, think about who? - witch doctor, think about what? - the forest.

How to determine the case of a noun - how to distinguish the Nominative from the Accusative

Some forms of the Nominative and Accusative are sometimes the same because they answer the same question. what?

Consider the suggestions:

• The snow was falling in large flakes.
• Going out into the street, we saw snow.

Word snow answers the question what? in both sentences, has the same form, but different syntactic meaning.

In the first case, snow is the subject; in the second, it is a circumstance. That is snow performs the action in the first sentence, and in the second the action is performed on it.

Noun snow in 1 sentence is in the Nominative case, in 2 - in the Accusative.

We looked at the questions and auxiliary words for each of the cases. Considered the case of coincidence of word forms of the Nominative and Accusative cases. We sorted out how the syntactic role helps to determine the case in case of difficulties.

Intermittent signs.

How to determine the declension of a noun.

1. Put the name of the noun. in I.p., in singular (to the initial form).

2. Determine the genus.

3. Determine the ending.

4. Determine the declination.

For example: The baby was asleep in the cradle.

1. The initial form is a cradle.

2. Genus - female.

3. The ending is zero.

4. Declination - 3

Cases of nouns.

The nominative singular is initial form noun. All cases, except for the nominative, are called indirect cases.

REMEMBER!

1. Find the word to which the name belongs.

2. Put from this word to n. both case questions.

3. For questions, determine the case.

For example: They stopped on the doorstep at home.

1. The word to which the name refers to n. - stopped.

2. We ask both case questions - stopped (on whom? On what?) On the threshold.

3. Questions of the prepositional case.

Endings of nouns.

case	questions	1st floor	2nd floor	3rd floor	pl. number
w.r., m.r. -and I	m.r., Wed. R. , -o, -e	r. b,	all declensions
I. p.	who? what?	-and I	, -o, -e		-a, -i, -i, -y
R. p.	whom? what? (whose? from what? where?)	-y, -and	-a, -i, -o, -e	-and	-ov, -ev, -ey,
D. p.	to whom? what? (where?)	-e	-y, -y	-and	-am, -yam
V. p.	whom? what? (where?)	-y, -y	-o, -e, -a, -ya,		-a, -i, -i, -y, -ey, -ov, -ev, zero
T. p.	by whom? how? (where when?)	- oh, - oh, - oh, - oh	-om, -em, -em	-NS	-s, -s
P. p.	about whom? about what? (where? how? what?)	-e	-e	-and	-ah, -ah

The number of nouns.

The number indicates the number of items.

Role in a sentence (syntactic role)

A noun in a sentence can be:

subject, predicate, definition, addition, circumstance.

Noun parsing scheme (morphological parsing)

I. Part of speech.

II. Morphological signs.

(subject, natural phenomenon, etc.)

Initial form (I. p., Singular h.)

Persistent signs:

a) own or common noun;

b) animate or inanimate;

d) declination.

Irregular signs:

III. Syntactic role.

For example: The river flows from the north South.

I. From the north - n.

II. (from where? - from what?) from the north, n. f. - north

Fast. - common., Inanimate., M. R., 2 skl.

Unpost. - R. p., Unit. h.

III. In the sentence - the circumstance of the place

"Ivan gave birth to a girl, ordered to drag the diaper" - many are familiar with this simple mnemonic hint for memorizing the case names of the Russian language. The school program includes the study of six main cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental and prepositional.

Not many people know that in fact there are more cases in our language. Scientists identify 9 more in addition to the existing ones. Many of them are considered outdated, but we habitually use them in modern speech. In this article, you will read about the cases you are familiar with, the rules of their use and differences, as well as about the rest, and you will find out where they went in the process of the development of the language.

What is taught in school

In modern Russian, scientists distinguish 6 cases. In modern Russian studies, the so-called question method of determining the cases is adopted, in which a question is asked (who? About whom? What ?, etc.) to the required word. Depending on this question, it is determined in which case the noun is used.

This method, although simple enough for a native speaker, is rather controversial. In particular, because it does not allow for easy declension of a name by case, for example, for foreigners studying Russian, since it relies on the metalanguage ability to pose the correct question. A person who is not a native speaker of the language, but only learns it, will not immediately understand why, say, the question “what?” Is asked to the noun “book”, and not, say, “about what?”. Also, this method will not help to distinguish between case forms for which the same questions are asked. Nevertheless, this method is quite acceptable for schoolchildren-speakers.

Case questions. How to determine the case by the question method?

There are direct cases of names and indirect ones. In Russian, there is only one direct case - nominative. Although some philologists also attribute the accusative to the direct cases. The generally used theory of language at the moment has not yet agreed with this. Thus, indirect cases are all the rest, from genitive to prepositional, as well as obsolete cases.

• Nominative case - who? what? - The cat left the room.
• Genitive case - (no) who? (no) what? - predominantly determines kinship or affiliation. This is a cat bowl.
• Dative case - (to give) to whom? (give) to what? - defines the "recipient" or endpoint to which the action is directed. Give the cat something to eat.
• Accusative - (blame) who? (blame) what? - denotes the object with which the action is performed. I pet the cat.
• Instrumental case - (create) by whom? (I create) with what? - defines the tool with which the action is performed. The vase is broken by the cat.
• Prepositional case - (think) about whom? (think about what? - They wrote a book about the cat.

Lost cases

• Local case (otherwise called "second prepositional") - indicates the place where the subject is. For example: (where?) At home, (where?) At home. Most of the nouns have lost this form, more precisely, it has merged with the instrumental or prepositional case. But there are also nouns in which this form has remained and is used. For example: "in the shadow" / stress on the last syllable /, as opposed to "on the shadow" / stress on the first syllable /.

• Vocal case - we know it by such words as "God", "father". That is, it is typical for Old Russian and Biblical texts. In modern language, this form often looks like this: "Anh, come here!", Or "Mom, dad is calling you." Interestingly, in many related Slavic languages ​​this form is still alive and actively used. For example, in Bulgarian: "lady, master"; in Ukrainian: "pan".

• Separating (quantitative-separative) case is a kind of genitive. “Eat some more of these soft French rolls and drink some tea” - here the names “rolls” and “tea” are used in the separative case. We cannot say "bread" and "tea", it will be grammatically incorrect. In the same way: "drink kefir" (not "kefir"), "ask the pepper" (not "pepper").

• The licensor case is one of the varieties of the accusative. It is used exclusively with negation: “not to have a right” (not “right”, as it would be logical to declare this word in the accusative case).

• Waiting case - "waiting for a letter", but "waiting for dad". Now this case has been lost, and it is believed that with the verb "wait", "wait", nouns are used both in the genitive ("letter") and in the accusative ("papu").

• The transformative (inclusive) case is now merged with the accusative. But it is still used in such cases: "marry", "go out to the people", "promote to the director", "fit for the soldier." That is, it is a form that answers the question "put" to the accusative case, but coincides with the plural of the nominative.

Thus, we see that the standard question method for determining the case is not enough, because, for example, for the accusative case there is no unique characterizing question, for the prepositional case the question that characterizes it depends on the preposition before the noun in the sentence, and, for example, there are no questions at all for the vocative case.

Cases and declensions

In Russian, nouns are distinguished by types of declension - there are three of them. The noun can be declined by gender (female-male: wolf-wolf), by numbers (singular-plural: wolf-wolves), by case (wolf-wolf-wolf, etc.).

• Nouns 1 declension. Includes names of the feminine gender, masculine gender and general gender ending in -а / -я in the nominative (I. p.) Of the singular: wife, youth, servant;
• Nouns with 2 declensions. Includes masculine and neuter names with a zero ending or ending in -o / -e in the nominative singular: soldier, apple, summer, commodity;
• Nouns with 3 declensions. Includes feminine names ending in -ь in the nominative singular: daughter, speech, night.

The noun will change in cases according to its type of declension. There are tables of case endings for each type of declension.

Cases of other parts of speech

Not only the noun, but also other parts of speech in Russian are inclined in cases. Let's consider them briefly.

Case of adjectives

The case of the adjective corresponds to the case of the noun with which it is agreed. Adjectives should also answer certain questions:

• In the nominative case - "what?", "Whose?"
• In the genitive - "what?", "Whose?"
• In the dative - "what?", "Whose?"
• In the accusative - "what?", "Whose?"
• In the instrumental - "what?", "Whose?"
• In the prepositional - "what?", "Whose?"

Numerals are also declined in cases. The rules apply to them the same as to nouns. But there is one mistake that many people make.

It must be borne in mind that when declining cardinal numbers, all words and parts of compound words should be changed (320 - three hundred twenty, three hundred twenty). When declining ordinal numbers, it is enough to change only the last word (1153 - one thousand one hundred and fifty-third, one thousand one hundred and fifty-third).

Pronoun cases

The last part of speech that is inflected in Russian is the pronoun. All pronouns are declined, change in gender and number, consistent with the noun being defined, if it is present or implied.

Russian is not the only language that has a complex case system. For example, in Finnish there are 16 cases, in Hungarian - 25 (but there is not a single preposition in it - all prepositions are expressed in case word forms). And in the Tabasaran language there are as many as 44 cases!

Cases in foreign languages

Even in English there is a case system, although we are used to thinking that there are no cases in English in our usual understanding. Nevertheless, the British are actively using the possessive case. It is formed using the ending "-" s ": Mommy" s, cat "s, Polly" s. In the Russian language, it was once, too, but now it remains only in an adjectivized form - my mother's, my daughter's.

And in some languages, for example, in German, there are cases of the verb. In Russian, however, verbs are simply used with prepositions.

The case of a noun is a grammatical category that denotes the relationship of this noun to the rest of the words in a phrase or sentence. There are six cases in the Russian language, but their definition causes difficulties not only in primary school. It is possible to determine the cases of nouns by characteristic questions and meaning, that is, by what one or another case is usually used for.

Let's take a quick look at all the cases.

• Nominative. Questions: "who?", "What?" It can only be used without a preposition and usually serves to express the subject in a sentence. (What?) Nature wakes up.
  
• Genitive. Questions: "who?", "What?". I don't have (what?) A book.
  
• Dative. Questions: "to whom?", "Why?". I gave the apple (to whom?) To my sister.
  
• Accusative. Questions: "who?", "What?" He watched (what?) The movie.
  
• Instrumental case. Questions: "by whom?", "By what?". The mother was admiring (who?) Her daughter.
  
• Prepositional. Questions: "about whom?", "About what?". We use this case only with prepositions. We talked (about whom?) About my father.
  

So, in order to correctly determine which case a noun is in, you need:

• find the word to which the noun refers;
  
• ask a question from the found word to a noun.
  

Now about the different meanings of indirect cases (these are all cases, except for the nominative).

1. Genitive. This case is used for both names and verbs. Examples of adverb use:
   • to designate an object to which the action applies only partially: to bring bread (“not all the bread, but a little, some part of it”);
     
   • to indicate a direct object of action, when the verb has a particle "not": I have not read a book (a book is an object of action);
     
   • to designate an object - with verbs expressing desire, achievement, removal: ask for a solution, demand an answer, lose peace.
     
   In common usage, the genitive case applies:
   • to express relations of belonging: Tchaikovsky's music, brother's room;
     
   • to designate a subject that has some attribute (clarity of thought - "a thought that is clear") or acting (the noise of waves - "waves make noise");
     
   • to designate an object of action; the action in this case is expressed by a noun formed from the verb: sending a parcel. The verb from which the noun is formed must be transitive (that is, the action goes to the object): send (what?) A parcel - sending a parcel;
     
   • to indicate a certain amount: a flock of sheep, a glass of water.
     
   If the genitive case is used next to an adjective in a comparative degree, it denotes the subject of such a comparison: brighter (what?) The sun, more (what?) A kilometer.
   
2. Dative. Usually this case is used with verbs (write to grandmother, help a friend), but there is also an accepted use. Here the dative case expresses:
   • object of action: helping friends;
     
   • purpose: feed for cows ("intended for cows").
     
   The dative case is also used to denote a subject in a particular state. Mother could not sleep. The girl wanted to play.
   
3. Accusative. This case is mainly used for verbs. It denotes a certain object of action: to love (what?) Autumn. However, it can also be used with some nouns:
   • to indicate time: wait (what?) a week;
     
   • to designate space: walk (what?) a kilometer.
     
   It happens that words in the nominative and accusative cases are spelled the same, and the auxiliary questions to them are very similar. There was a maple tree growing in the park. The hurricane broke (what?) The maple. Maple is a noun with a zero ending and does not change in the nominative and accusative cases. Try to substitute any other word that has an ending to track its change. In the park grew (what?) Birch ("-a" / "-ya" - the end of them. P.). The hurricane broke (what?) A birch ("-y" / "-yu" - the end of the vin.p.). Another important indication of case: before us is an object (maple), to which the action is directed (breaking). And one more thing: in a sentence, the word in the accusative case plays the role of an object (and not a subject, as in the nominative case).
   
4. Instrumental case. Most often found with verbs and means:
   • an object with which you can perform an action: write with a pencil;
     
   • the one who acts: the text was written by a student;
     
   • the object to which the action is directed: to lead the department;
     
   • sign: seem handsome;
     
   • space: pass by side;
     
   • mode of action: speak in a bass;
     
   • comparison: walking a rooster.
     
   The instrumental case can be used with verbal nouns: department management, cross-stitching. He can express various attitudes: dissatisfied with work, delighted with success.
   
5. Prepositional. This case exists only with prepositions: o (about / about), in (in), on, on, at. If you try to drop the preposition, you won't get an independent case form: brother. The word is clearly missing something - this is the preposition "o". In other cases, the word "brother" is quite independent: a brother arrived, the words of a brother, said to a brother, I see a brother, done by a brother.
   Prepositional case in combination with verbs expresses:
   • the object of thoughts, feelings, actions, speech, states: thinking about the past, taking care of grandfather, talking about vacations;
     
   • scene: wandering around the field;
     
   • time of action: arrive in November;
     
   • an object that allows you to perform an action: play the violin;
     
   • mode of action: to convey in words;
     
   • course of action: scream in rage.
     
   A noun in the prepositional case is usually adjacent to nouns formed from verbs: meeting on the road, swimming in the pool, playing the violin. This case can also denote a sign or quality: a boy with glasses, a jacket with fur.
   

When determining the case, some difficulties may arise. But if you remember the auxiliary questions and learn the signs that are characteristic of each case, its determination will become an easy task.

To connect with other words, nouns change in cases.

There are six cases in Russian, each case answers a specific question:

All cases, except for the nominative, are called indirect... The nominative case is called direct... Nouns in the nominative case are subjects in a sentence, and in indirect cases, they are minor members.

To find out the case of a noun, you need to find the word on which it depends, and put a question to the noun from this word.

Prepositions of cases in Russian

Along with case endings, prepositions are used to connect nouns with other words. The prepositional case is used only with prepositions, for example:

talked about the house, lives in the house

The rest of the indirect cases are used both with and without prepositions, for example:

no forest, stopped by the forest- Genitive

give mom, go to mom- dative

The nominative case is always used without prepositions.

Genitive prepositions

Prepositions used with nouns in the genitive case:

y, from, to, from, with, without, around, around, for.

Genitive noun with word No denotes the absence of an object: no (what?) tea, no (who?) elephant.

Genitive nouns are often used with prepositions y, from, from, to indicate a place, and answer questions where? where?:

(where?) by the lake, (where?) from the closet.

Genitive nouns often denote a person or thing that owns something, for example:

holiday (whom?) sisters, the door (what?) of the closet.

Dative prepositions

Prepositions used with nouns in the dative case

to, by.

A noun in the dative case denotes an object for which an action is performed:

told (to whom?) to a friend, returned (to whom?) to mom.

The dative noun is often used with the preposition To to designate the object to which the action is directed:

going (where? or to what?) to the sea.

Accusative prepositions

Prepositions used with nouns in the accusative case:

in, on, behind, under, through.

The noun in the accusative case is a minor member of the sentence and most often denotes the subject to which the action is transferred. With prepositions v and on there is an indication of where the action is directed. Such nouns can be asked where? For example:

let's go (where? what?) to class

came (where? for what?) to the kitchen

Instrumental prepositions

Prepositions used with nouns in the instrumental case:

for, on, under, before, with.

The noun in the instrumental case is a minor member and denotes the object (tool) with which the action is performed. They are often used with prepositions above and under to indicate the place and answers the question where? For example:

flies (where?) over the ocean

hanging (where?) under a tree

Prepositions of the prepositional case

Nouns in the prepositional case are always used with prepositions (they are never used without prepositions). Prepositions used with nouns in the prepositional case:

oh, oh, in, in, on, at.

Prepositional noun with a preposition O denotes a person or object about which something is told:

said (about whom?) about mom.

told (about what?) about a dream.

Noun with a preposition on or v stands in the prepositional case if it denotes a place of action and answers a question where? If a noun with a preposition on or v denotes the place of direction of action and answers the question where?, then it is in the accusative case:

walks (where?) in the park- prepositional

goes (where?) to the park- accusative