Spelling Rules:

In order to make many of the spelling changes we see in Russian easier to deal with, there are three basic spelling rules that are often helpful. As you can see below, there are core group of four letters that appear in each of the spelling rules...

After these letters,
8 Letter	г к х	ш щ ж ч	ц	write у, not ю, + write а, not я
7 Letter	г к х	ш щ ж ч		write и, not ы
5 Letter		ш щ ж ч	ц	write е, not unaccented о

 

Declensions:

Russian, like many other languages, is an inflected language, which means that words often change their appearance to reflect the status that word has in a particular sentence. Words change in Russian most often by altering a few letters that appear at the end of the word. The following table gives us a rough schema to help show some of the ways Russian words change their appearance to reflect case.

By case, we mean the category a word falls into in a particular sentence. In most modern grammars of Russians there are six cases: the nominative, the accusative, the genitive, the dative, the instrumental, and the prepositional. A word appearing in the nominative case will play the role or perform the function assigned to that case.

For instance, words that are in the nominative tend to be the subject of a sentence. Words that appear in the accusative will tend to be the object of a sentence. The table below gives the changes that occur at the end of the word, either in the masculine, feminine neuter or plural, for each of the six Russian cases. Each gender, masculine, feminine and neutuer, in addition to the plurals, follows a particular pattern in its declension. In addition to indicating the role or function a word has in a sentence, the case of word can also be determined by a preposition. Below you will find a chart indicating the case or cases each preposition can take.

Noun Declension	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nomin.	--/ь/й	а/я	о/е	Masc: -ы/и Neu: -а/я    Fem: -ы/и
Accus.	inan.=nom.	у/ю	о/е	inan.=nom.
	anim.=gen.			anim.=gen.
Genit.	а/я	ы/-и	а/я	Masc: -ов/ев , but -ж/ч/ш/щ gets -ей Neu: --/ей/й Fem: --/ь/ей
Dative	у/ю	е/и	у/ю	ам/ям
Instrum.	ом/ем	ой/ей	ом/ем	ами/ями
Prepos.	е	е/и	е	ах/ях

Like nouns, adjectives also follow a declension table, or as we say they are declined. Adjectives are often used together with nouns. We say that they modify the noun, as for instance with the phrase "red ball," we would say that red modifies ball. In gendered languages the adjective often takes on the gender of the noun it modifies. In Russian the case and gender of the noun determines the way the end of the word is changed for all modifying adjectives. The order of the cases is the same, but here they are given in Russian...

Adjective Declension	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Именительный	ый/ий/ой	ая/яя	ое/ее	ые/ие
Винительный	inan.=nom.	ую/юю	ое/ее	inan.=nom.
	anim.=gen.			anim.=gen.
Родительный	ого/его	ой/ей	ого/его	ых/их
Дательный	ому/ему	ой/ей	ому/ему	ым/им
Творительный	ым/им	ой/ей	ым/им	ыми/ими
Предложный	ом/ем	ой/ей	ом/ем	ых/их

 

Conjugations:

Beyond declension, there is another way in which Russian is inflected, or changed: conjugation. Conjugation describes the way the ending of a word changes if that word is a verb. Verbs are changed in a way that is entirely different from that of nouns. The endings of verbs are changed to reflect the way the verb is being used, or more specifically, the way the sentence is being addressed: whether or not it is I who is speaking, whether the verb is being used to describe what you are doing, or whether the very is being used to describe what they are doing. These three possibilities are called the three persons: the first (I), the second (you), and the third (he/she/it or they) person.

In the first person, I am always the person speaking. In the second, you are always the person whom I am speaking to, and so on. In addition to person, verbs also reflect whether the verb is being used in the singluar or the plural. Beyond that, int he second person it is also important to consider whether you are speaking the formal, or the informal, but we will cover that in class.

Two Main Conjugation Patters
е			и
1st	я	-ю / -у	я	-ю / -у
2nd	ты	-ешь	ты	-ишь
3rd	он она оно	-ет	он она оно	-ит
1st	мы	-ем	мы	-им
2nd	вы	-ете	вы	-ите
3rd	они	-ют/ут	они	-ят/ат

Prepositions and the cases they take:

As mentioned above, prepositions determine the case of the noun that follows it. Below you will find some basic Russian prepositions, divided up according to the case that preposition takes. You will notice that some prepositions appear alongside multiple cases. These prepositions have been highlighted, or color-coded. We will discuss in class how to figure out which case to use for multiple-case prepositions.

Prepositions (prepositions that take multiple cases listed with matching colors)
Accus.	[куда?]   в   (into, at +time),  на  (onto, into, toward),   о   ( against),  под (under) , за (for),    с (for, about ~size),  по  (up to), через (through, across, after, via), сквозь(through),  про  (about, concerning)
Genit.	у   (at, by, near, poss.),  около  (near, around),  от  (from, since),   до  (up to, until),  для  (for),  без  (without),  из  (from, out of, of),  кроме  (except),  вокруг  (around),    с  (from),  против  (against),  ради (for the sake of),  среди  (among),  близ  (near),   возле (beside, near),  из-за  (from, because of, for),  после  (after +time),  мимо  (past, by),  позади (behind),  прежде  (before, previous to),  кругом  (around),  вне  (out of, outside),  внутри (inside),  сверх  (above, over),  подле  (beside, near)
Dative	к   (to, by+time),  по  (along, on, accord. to),  вопреки  (despite)
Instrum.	с  (with), под (under), за (behind),  между  (between),  перед (in front of, before), над  (among, over)
Prepos.	[где?]   в   (in, at, on),  на  (on, at),   о   (about, of, on)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Possessives:

Possessives, or possessive adjectives, or possessive pronouns are used to describe whom or what a thing belongs to. As above, possessives take case, and are divided up below accorind to gender, number and case.

	Masc.	Fem.	Neut.	Plural
Именител.	мой твой наш ваш чей	моя твоя наша ваша чья	моё твоё наше ваше чьё	мои твои наши ваши чьи
Винител.	inanam. =nom.	мою твою нашу вашу чью	моё твоё наше ваше чьё	inanam. =nom.
	anim. =gen.			anim. =gen.
Родител.	моего твоего нашего вашего чьего	моей твоей нашей вашей чьей	моего твоего нашего вашего чьего	моих твоих наших ваших чьих
Дател.	моему твоему нашему вашему чьему	моей твоей нашей вашей чьей	моему твоему нашему вашему чьему	моим твоим нашим вашим чьим
Творител.	моим твоим нашим вашим чьим	моей твоей нашей вашей чьей	моим твоим нашим вашим чьим	моими твоими нашими вашими чьими
Предлож.	моём твоём нашем вашем чьём	моей твоей нашей вашей чьей	моём твоём нашем вашем чьём	моих твоих наших ваших чьих

 

 

 

Pronouns:

Pronouns are like nouns, and like the nouns they stand in for, they take case. To the left, I have included a set of corresponding question words, which in Russian also take case.

кто что		Singular			Plural
	Pers.->	1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
кто что	Nom.	я	ты	он оно она	мы	вы	они
кого что	Acc.	меня	тебя	его его её	нас	вас	их
кого чего	Genit.	меня	тебя	его его её	нас	вас	их
кому чему	Dat.	мне	тебе	нём нём ней	нас	вас	них
кем чем	Instr.	мной	тобой	им им ей	нами	вами	ими
о ком о чём	Prep.	обо мне	о тебе	о нём о нём о ней	о нас	о вас	о них