All world languages ​​can be conditionally divided into inflectional and non-inflectional. This means that the words that are part of the languages ​​of the first group have endings, and lexical units belonging to the second group of languages ​​do not have them. The Russian language belongs to the first type of languages. This is explained by the fact that the words in the native language in the sentence and phrase are connected in meaning and grammatically, that is, with the help of endings.

The endings of nominal parts of speech indicate in which case the desired part of speech is used. In general, the category of a name in Russian has such grammatical feature, like a case. It is he who allows you to link lexemes into phrases, and phrases into sentences, that is, more large units expressions of thought.

The case is usually called one of morphological features nominal parts of speech. It is intended to ensure that it is grammatically correct to determine in what relationship the constituent phrases or

The category of the case of a noun is defined as a feature included in the group of morphologically inconstant ones. When a part of speech changes, its case also changes. In general, there are six cases in Russian. They are also included in, studied as part of the school curriculum.

• The nominative is a case in which the noun is in the singular form. For comparison: lilac(what?), child(who?). The noun in this I. p. is never used in speech with a preposition. For this reason, I. p. is direct.
• Genitive. Indirect. It is always used with prepositions. You can substitute the auxiliary word "no" for verification. For example: (no one?) Misha.
• Dative. Auxiliary word - "lady". Indirect, its use is possible without a preposition and with it. Example: (give to whom?) Nikita.
• Accusative. Helps to correctly define his word "see". Indirect. Nouns in V. p. are objects in a sentence. According to the above signs, it cannot be confused with the nominative. For example: through (what?) time,(see what?) banner.
• Instrumental. For him, the auxiliary word will be "satisfied." Indirect. It is used with . Example: (happy with whom?) daughter, (happy with what?) result.
• Prepositional. Indirect. Its name directly indicates that it is always used with a preposition. Auxiliary word "think". For example: (thinking about whom?) about my beloved; (think about what?) about defending a dissertation.

Russian case table with questions:

Case system

Turns out, case system our mother tongue represented by fifteen cases. Six of them are studied in the course. And the rest will be discussed later.

• Vocative. He was included in the case system Old Church Slavonic. Now its form can be considered the word God. Today, similar forms in the language are formed when inflection is cut off. It turns out not quite “full-fledged” in the grammatical sense of the word: mom, dad, dad and similar forms.
• Local. It is easy to guess by prepositions in, on, at and on the question where?: (where?) at the shelf, (where?) on the wardrobe, (where?) in the nose.
• Dividing. It is a derivative of the parent. Defined in context. For example: drink tea, there will be no spark, piping hot.
• Countable. An indicator is a word denoting a number or quantity in context: two hours, two steps.
• Deferral. It is used with the preposition from. It matters the beginning of the movement. For example: from home etc.
• Depriving. It is easy to recognize it from the context. Always used with the particle not. For example: cannot have a child.
• Waiting. It looks like an accusation. It can only be defined in context. For example: wait for the weather from the sea.
• Transformative or inclusive. It is also recognizable in context. For example: I will take as a wife, suitable for a daughter etc.

How to determine

The definition of a grammatical category, for example, cases of nouns and their endings, students should be able to perform both orally and in writing.

First, consider the algorithm by which you can verbally determine the case:

1. In a sentence, it is necessary to highlight such a phrase so that the noun in it is a dependent word.
2. Ask a question about a noun.
3. at the noun.

For example: I hear my dad call. Call(whom?) dads(R. p.)

Now we will describe the scheme for determining the case of a noun in writing:

1. In a sentence, signs // indicate the boundaries of a phrase.
2. The main word in the phrase is denoted by X.
3. Draw an arrow from the main to the dependent word.
4. Write a question above the arrow.
5. Determine case.
6. Write a case over the noun.

Case endings

Indirect cases in Russian and their endings require careful study by schoolchildren as part of the general education program.

Despite the fact that most often it is not difficult for native speakers to write the ending correctly in nouns, however, there are also special cases, which require the ability to determine cases and correctly write endings in words.

Endings in cases of the Russian language:

1 cl.	Name	Endings in the singular	Plural endings
	Nominative	-and I	-s, -and
	Genitive	-s, -and	-, -her
	Dative	-e, -and	-am, -yam
	Accusative	-u, -u	-s, -and, -her
	Instrumental	-oh, she	-ami, -ami
	Prepositional	-e, -and	-ah, -ah
2 declension	Nominative	-o, -e (cf.)	-a, -i, -s, -and
	Genitive	-and I	-, -ov, -ev, -ey
	Dative	-u,-u	-am, -yam
	Accusative	-o, -e (cf.)	-a, -i, -s, -and
	Instrumental	-om, -em	-ami, -ami
	Prepositional	-e, -and	-ah, -ah
3 declension	Nominative	-	-and
	Genitive	-and	-her
	Dative	-and	-am, -yam
	Accusative	-	-and
	Instrumental	-Yu	-ami, -ami
	Prepositional	-and	-ah, -ah

Useful video

Summing up

With case change in mind, we are actually talking about declension. By the way, there are three types of them in the Russian language system. The case is formally expressed through the endings (inflections) of words. Thus, in the course of reflection, we came to the conclusion that the case category in the Russian language performs the function of changing words. It is needed in order for words to be combined into phrases and form a sentence. Moreover, this sentence must be logically complete and grammatically correct.

"Ivan gave birth to a girl, ordered to drag a diaper" - many people are familiar with this simple mnemonic clue for remembering the names of the cases 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 several more cases in our language. Scientists identify 9 more in addition to the existing ones. Many of them are considered obsolete, but we habitually use them in modern speech. In this article, you will read both about the cases you know, the rules for their use and differences, and about the rest, and find out where they have gone in the process of language development.

What is taught in school

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

This method, although simple enough for a native speaker, is quite controversial. In particular, because it does not allow to easily decline a name by cases, for example, for foreigners studying Russian, as it relies on the metalinguistic ability to put right question. A person who is not a native speaker, but only studying 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 to which the same questions are asked. However, for schoolchildren-carriers, this method is quite acceptable.

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

There are direct cases of names and indirect ones. In Russian, there is only one direct case - nominative. Although some philologists also refer the accusative to direct cases. The commonly used theory of the 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) whom? (no) what? - mainly determines kinship or belonging. This is a cat bowl.
• Dative case - (to give) to whom? (give) what? - defines the "recipient" or endpoint to which the action is directed. Give the cat food.
• Accusative case - (blame) whom? (blame) what? - indicates the object with which the action is performed. I pet a cat.
• Instrumental case - (I create) by whom? (create) what? - defines the tool with which the action is performed. The vase is broken by a cat.
• Prepositional- (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 object is located. For example: (where?) at home, (where?) home. Most of nouns has 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 shade" / emphasis on last syllable/, in contrast to "about the shadow" /stress on the first syllable/.

• The vocative case - we know it by such words as "God", "Father". That is, it is typical for Old Russian and biblical texts. AT modern language this form often looks like this: "An, come here!", Or "Mom, dad is calling you." Interestingly, in many related Slavic languages this form is alive and actively used. For example, in Bulgarian: “lady, lord”; in Ukrainian: "pan".

• The dividing (quantitative-separating) case is a kind of genitive. “Eat more of these soft French rolls and drink some tea” - here the names “buns” and “tea” are used precisely in the separating case. We can't say "buns" and "tea", that would be grammatically incorrect. In the same way: “drink kefir” (not “kefir”), “ask pepper” (not “pepper”).

• The deprivative case is one of the varieties of the accusative. It is used exclusively with a negative: “have no right” (not “right”, as it would be logical to decline this word in the accusative case).

• The expectant case is "wait for a letter", but "wait for dad". Now this case has been lost, and it is believed that with the verb “wait”, “expect”, nouns are used both in the genitive (“letters”) and in the accusative (“dad”).

• The transformative (inclusive) case is now merged with the accusative. But it is still used in such cases: “to take as a husband”, “to go out to the people”, “to promote to directors”, “suitable for soldiers”. That is, it is a form that answers the question "posed" 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 not a single 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, for vocative there are no questions at all.

Cases and declensions

In Russian, nouns are distinguished by types of declension - there are three of them. You can decline a noun by gender (female-male: wolf-wolf), by numbers (singular-plural: wolf-wolves), by cases (wolf-wolf-wolf, etc.).

• Nouns 1 declension. Includes feminine, masculine and generic ending in -а/-я in the nominative (I.p.) singular: wife, youth, servant;
• Nouns 2 declensions. They include masculine and middle names with a zero ending or ending in -o / -e in the nominative singular: soldier, apple, summer, product;
• Nouns 3 declensions. Include 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 by cases. Let's consider them briefly.

Cases of adjectives

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

• AT nominative case- "what?", "whose?"
• In the genitive - “what?”, “Whose?”
• In the dative - “what?”, “whose?”
• In the accusative - “what?”, “Whose?”
• In the creative - “what?”, “whose?”
• In the prepositional - “what?”, “Whose?”

Numerals are also declined according to cases. The same rules apply to them 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 should be changed compound words(320 - three hundred and twenty, three hundred and 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).

Cases of pronouns

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

Not only the Russian language has a complex case system. For example, in Finnish 16 cases are distinguished, in Hungarian - 25 (but there is not a single preposition in it - all prepositions are expressed in case word forms). And in 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 considering that cases in English language not in our usual sense. However, the British actively use possessive. It is formed with the ending "-"s": Mommy"s, cat"s, Polly"s. In Russian, he was once also, but now he remains only in an adjectivized form - mother's, daughter's.

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

Most people have already forgotten what happened at school, and today they hardly remember what cases are called and what they are for. However, sometimes the question arises as to which case is called, and why it was given such a name. Such a thought can settle very deeply, become obsessive, and not disappear until you remember why any of the cases got its name. And today we'll take a look at this issue.

What are cases

To begin with, if you have forgotten, we will recall what cases are in general, for what purpose they are present in our speech and grammar.

Cases are a category of parts of speech that allows you to give words some semantic or syntactic role. It is through cases that we understand that in specific context this or that phrase can mean, declining parts of speech, according to existing cases.

There are six cases that, despite the years that have passed since graduation, perhaps most people still remember to this day. It:

• Nominative;
• Genitive;
• Dative;
• Accusative;
• Instrumental;
• Prepositional.

Why are cases called so?

Below we propose to briefly pay attention to all existing cases and give an answer to the question of why they got their names.

In order to remember which case certain words belong to, it is important to remember the basic questions they answer. For example, in order to answer the question why the prepositional case is so called, it is necessary to understand that the words inclined to this case answer the questions “About whom?”, “About what?” etc. That is, for example, “about parents”, “about computers”, etc. This case got its name due to the fact that the words inclined into it can be substituted for the phrase "Offer". That is, for example: “The proposal about parents”, because the proposals can be about someone or about something.

Similarly, names were assigned to other cases in the Russian language. And the sequence can be tracked very easily. For example, words inclined into the accusative case, derived from the word "blame", answer the questions "Whom?" and “What?”, because you can blame either someone or something.

In a similar way, questions are formed when declension into other cases that we have not considered above:

• Nominative: "Who?" and what?";
• Genitive: "Who?" "What?";
• Dative: "To whom?" and "What?"
• Creative: "By whom?" and "What?"

Nouns are very widely represented in Russian. They can act as main and secondary members of the proposal. Using the cases of nouns, the speaker and writer can connect these parts of speech with others in the context of the sentence. Cases are directly related to another category of a noun - its declension. From correct definition which, by the way, depends on the spelling correctness of the written.

Case category

The case of nouns is grammatical category, which indicates the relation 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 coloring and even word order.

In modern Russian, there are only 6 case forms.

Case name	Issues of cases of nouns
Nominative
Genitive	Whom? What?
Dative	To whom? What?
Accusative	Whom? What?
Instrumental
Prepositional	About whom? About what?

Sometime in Old Russian there was another, seventh, vocative case. But it has lost its significance in the course of development. language culture. Echoes of the vocative case remained in common speech. Previously, it was comparable to the nominative and denoted the appeal: father, man. On the present stage development of the Russian language, it is realized in such colloquial appeals: Sing, Vas, Tan, etc.

Meaning and form of expression of cases. Nominative case

In addition to grammatical meaning, cases of nouns have lexical meaning. Let's sort them out.

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

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

Another example: This tree is a birch. Subject wood(Name p., predicate Birch - nominal part composite nominal predicate, stands in Im. P.).

Genitive case meanings

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

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

The genitive case is used when comparative degree adjectives: stronger than (whom?) Bull. With a quantitative numeral: a thousand (what?) rubles.

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

• denotes a specific object when associated with transitive verb: issue a receipt;
• used after verbs like to be afraid, to seek, to deprive me and others: seek (what?) permission.

used Genitive when reporting exact date. For example: She was born on the sixth (what?) of March, nineteen eighty-two.

Meanings of the dative and accusative cases

Other cases of nouns are not so rich in lexical meanings and grammatical connections. So, 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 in front of us direct object: writing a poem.

Instrumental and prepositional cases

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

• tool or method of action: to beat (with what?) with a fist(way), beat (with what?) with a hammer(tool);
• the subject performing the action: spelled (by whom?) by mother; washed (with what?) with a rag;
• is part of the nominal part of the predicate: she was (who?) a doctor.

The prepositional case is special, this is clear from its name. He always asks for a preposition. May refer to:

• topic of conversation, thoughts, etc.: let's talk (about what?) about the work of Goethe; 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 one, but with an indication of the year: I was born (when?) in 1990.

Noun declension

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

Nouns such as homeland, land, frame, belong to the first declension. They are united by belonging to the feminine gender and the endings -а/-я. Also, few masculine nouns fell into these declensions: Vitya, grandfather, father. In addition to the gender, they are united by the endings -а / -я.

Much larger group masculine nouns: son-in-law, wolf, sofa. They have null 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 soft sign(zero ending), it will refer to the third declension: rye, youth, daughter, brooch.

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

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 define cases and declensions of nouns in a sentence: The motorcyclist was driving on level ground.

Subject motorcyclist does not refer to any other word because it is main member sentences, therefore, is in the nominative case. Determine the declination: zero ending and masculine indicate that the word is 2 declensions. Noun with preposition by terrain depends on the word rode. We ask a question: drove (where?) through the area. This is a matter of prepositional case. terrain - feminine, ends with b, so the declension is third.

Declension of singular nouns

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

Let us give examples of the declension of singular nouns and pay attention to the 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 on -iya, on the contrary, in these cases one should write the ending -и.

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 the noun ends in -й / -е, then in this case it is necessary to write -и.

third declension

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

Declension of plural nouns

Let's analyze the cases of nouns plural.

	1 declination		2 declension		3 declension
	solid type	soft type	masculine	Neuter gender
Nominative		pans
Genitive		saucepans
Dative	Pictures	pots
Accusative		pans
Instrumental	paintings	pans	barracks
Prepositional	About the paintings	About pots	About barracks

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

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

To distinguish lexical meanings plural nouns are used different endings: sheet, but leaves (of a tree) and sheets (of a book).

Nouns like contracts, elections, engineers, officers, designers it is required to write only with the ending -s. Another flexion is a violation of the norm.

Inflected nouns

The Russian language has a unique group of nouns. When changing in cases, 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	stirrup
Dative	stirrup		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 one special group nouns are immutable. They are not put in the form of number and case. They always have the same form: without kimono(R. p.) - about kimono(P. p.); new kimono(units) - bought kimonos(plural).

How to determine in this case how the noun is grammatically expressed? Number, case, look at the word to which it refers. Examples:

1. Pedestrians hurried along the new highway.

2. New highways are laid.

In the first sentence, we determine the number and case by adjective new(singular h., D. p.). In the second - also by adjective new(pl., Im.p.).

Invariable nouns are usually foreign words, as common nouns ( soda, cafe) and own ( Baku, Hugo). Complexly abbreviated words (abbreviations) are also invariable. For example: computer, nuclear power plant.

Russian language belongs to the languages synthetic tuning: in them, inflection occurs by adding or changing inflections - in other words, endings - that convey several meanings. hallmark such a paradigm is a combination of several meanings within a single morpheme.

In languages analytical system(for example, Romance: Spanish, French) word order and prepositions fulfill the same purpose, which requires cases of nouns and adjectives in Russian, that is, they establish grammatical meaning word forms and syntactic link with other members of the proposal.

The concept of declension: declension in Russian

The inflectional nature of the Russian language is manifested in the fact that the nominal parts of speech add endings that convey the categories of the year, numbers and cases. This process is called inclination. In Russian, according to traditional classification, the noun has three declensions, although there are other approaches. For example, Andrey Anatolyevich Zaliznyak proposes to define the first and second declension "school" paradigms as variations of the general substantive type.

The diversity of concepts is observed not only in this area. From school textbooks it is known that nouns and adjectives of the Russian language change in six cases, but linguistics disputes this statement. This is because in some cases the noun takes on an ending that is not part of the traditional declension paradigm (for example, have a cup of tea Yu , instead of have a cup of tea I ; don't know the truth s instead of don't know the truth at ). Fortunately, knowing these additional cases examples of which are given are optional.

However, most people are far from scientific research and disputes, still operating only six cases memorizing them using mnemonic rules. Unfortunately, to memorize case endings, there are none and you have to memorize them. But even the most literate people sometimes fall into a stupor, wondering which ending will be true in this case. If you have problems, it is best to contact table:

Case name	Question	Prepositions	Endings of the 1st declension	Endings 2 declensions	Endings 3 declensions	Plural endings
Nominative	who? what?		-and I	-o, -e		-s, -i, -a, -i
Genitive	whom? what? whose? whose? whose?	without, at, before, from, with, about, from, near, after, for, around	-s, -and	-and I	-and	-, -ov, -ev, -ey
Dative	to whom? what?	to, by	-e, -and	-u, -u	-and	-am, -yam
Accusative	whom? what?	in, for, on, about, through	-u, -u	-o, -e	= I.p.	-, -s, -i, -a, -i, -ey
Instrumental	by whom? how?	for, over, under, before, with	-oh (-oh), -ee (-ee)	-om, -em	-Yu	-ami, -ami
Prepositional	about whom? about what?	in, on, oh, about, both, at	-e, -and	-e, -and	-and	-ah, -ah

As can be seen from the table, in many cases the forms of the noun in the accusative and nominative cases are the same. This is due to their grammatical and syntactic meaning: the noun in the nominative case denotes the subject of the action and is the subject of the sentence, while the accusative introduces the object of the action and is the object.

AT ancient Greece grammar under strong influence natural philosophies assumed that the nominative is a kind of perfection, the "correct" form of the word, and all the rest are deviations from the ideal. Actually, the very term "declination" conveys the logic of ancient scientists. The opposition they created still exists, albeit for different reasons. So, cases are divided into:

• direct (nominative) - do not depend on other members of the sentence and are not controlled by verbs;
• indirect (all others) - are introduced by prepositions and act as a complement.

Meanings of indirect cases

Cases of the Russian language have specific functions in the formation of links between the members of the proposal. For example, the genitive conveys the meaning of belonging and inclusion in something ( son's notebook, wooden house), while the dative introduces the addressee of the speech or process ( call your mom, tell a friend). Modern instrumental case included several meanings at once, among which one can single out the instrument of action ( knock with a hammer) and path trajectory ( walk the forest path). The prepositional case, as the name suggests, uses prepositions to convey a set different meanings, from which, as an example, one can select a location in space ( room in the house).

The selection of these values ​​and the ability to determine them is the basis for compliance spelling norms. Errors in case endings are very common. To avoid them, you must at least correctly determine the case.

Determining the case of a noun

simple table there are not enough endings for the correct spelling of the word. As a rule, the problem is to determine the necessary case. As an example of such a difficulty, orthoepic similar forms of the genitive and dative cases 1 declension singular ( grandmothers – grandmother). However, there is an easy way to determine the ending needed in a particular case. For this you need:

The operations described above are very simple and effective. But there are other tools that don't require memorization. case questions and types of declensions. With development high technology and Internet communications made it possible to compile special programs and services that are able to decline the necessary noun online in a split second. This method suitable for both students and adults.