Why what case? What questions do cases answer? Instrumental case questions. Prepositional case questions

Nouns are very widely represented in the Russian language. They can act as main and secondary members of a sentence. By using noun cases, speakers and writers can relate these parts of speech to others in the context of a sentence. Another category of a noun is directly related to cases - its declension. By the way, the spelling correctness of what is written depends on the correct definition of which.

Case category

The case of nouns is a grammatical category that indicates the relationship of a given part of speech to other words in a sentence. These connections can be realized not only with the help of case forms - prepositions help in this, as well as intonation and even word order.

In modern Russian there are only 6 case forms.

Once upon a time in the Old Russian language there was another, seventh, vocative case. But it lost its significance during the development of linguistic culture. Echoes of the vocative case remain in common parlance. Previously, it was comparable to the nominative and denoted the address: father, man. On modern stage development of the Russian language, it is realized in the following colloquial addresses: Sing, Vasya, Tan, etc.

The meaning and form of expression of cases. Nominative

Besides grammatical meaning, cases of nouns have lexical. Let's sort them out.

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

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

Another example: This tree is birch. Subject tree(Name p., predicate birch- the nominal part of a compound nominal predicate, stands in Im. p.).

Meanings of the genitive case

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

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

The genitive case is used when comparative degree adjectives: stronger than (who?) a bull. With a cardinal number: thousand (what?) rubles.

As for the verb and verb forms, this case is used in the following cases:

• denotes a specific object when associated with transitive verb: write out a receipt;
• used after verbs such as to fear, to achieve, to lose me and others: seek (what?) permission.

The genitive case is used when reporting an exact date. For example: She was born on the sixth (what?) March one thousand nine hundred and eighty-two.

Meanings of the dative and accusative cases

Other cases of nouns are not so rich in lexical meanings and grammatical connections. Thus, the dative case is associated with verbs and some nouns (verbal). Has a side object value: help parents(compare: help around the house- direct object).

The accusative case indicates that before us direct object: I'm writing a poem.

Instrumental and prepositional cases

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

• weapon or method of action: punch (with what?)(way), hit (with what?) with a hammer(weapon);
• subject performing the action: written (by whom?) by mother; washed with (what?) a rag;
• is part of the nominal part of the predicate: she was (what?) a doctor.

The prepositional case is special, as is clear from its name. It always requires a preposition. May refer to:

• topic of conversation, thoughts, etc.: let's talk (about what?) about Goethe's work; 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 date, but indicating the year: I was born (when?) in nineteen ninety.

Declension of nouns

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

Nouns like homeland, earth, frame, belong to the first declension. They are united by belonging to the feminine gender and endings -а/-я. Also included in these declensions are the few masculine nouns: Vitya, grandfather, dad. In addition to gender, they are united by the endings -a/-я.

The group of masculine nouns is much larger: son-in-law, wolf, sofa. They have a zero 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 adjectival declension, that is, they change by case like adjectives and participles. This includes those who have made the transition from these parts of speech to a noun: living room, greeting.

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 determine the cases and declensions of nouns in a sentence: The motorcyclist was riding on flat ground.

Subject motorcyclist does not refer to any other word because it is main member The sentence is therefore in the nominative case. We determine the declination: zero ending and masculine indicate that the word is 2 declension. Noun with preposition by area depends on the word was driving. We ask a question: drove (where?) around the area. This is a matter of prepositional case. Terrain- feminine, ending in b, therefore the third declension.

Declension of singular nouns

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

Let's give examples of declension of singular nouns and pay attention to endings in some forms.

First declension

Pay attention to the dative and prepositional cases. They require the ending -e. In a noun ending in -iya, on the contrary, in these cases the ending -i should be written.

Second declension

Here we pay attention to the prepositional case: it requires the ending -e. If a noun ends in -й/-и, then it is necessary to write -и in this case.

Third declension

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

Declension of plural nouns

Let's look at the cases of plural nouns.

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

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

To distinguish lexical meanings nouns put in the plural form have different endings: sheet, But leaves (of a tree) And sheets (of a book).

Nouns like treaties, elections, engineers, officers, designers You only need to write with the ending -ы. A different inflection is a violation of the norm.

Indeclinable nouns

The Russian language has a unique group of nouns. When changing by case, 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.

Like nouns of the 3rd declension, these words in the singular, genitive, dative and prepositional cases require the ending -i.

Immutable nouns

Another special group of nouns is unchangeable. They are not put in number and case form. They always have the same form: without kimono(R.p.) - about kimono(P.p.); new kimono(units) - purchased kimonos(plural).

How to determine in this case how the noun is grammatically expressed? We look at the number and case according to the word to which it refers. Examples:

1. Pedestrians were hurrying along the new highway.

2. New highways have been built.

In the first sentence we determine the number and case of the adjective new(units, d.p.). In the second - also by adjective new(plural, im.p.).

Invariable nouns are usually foreign words, as common nouns ( citro, cafe), and own ( Baku, Hugo). Complex abbreviated words (abbreviations) are also unchangeable. For example: Computer, nuclear power plant.

Russian grammar is one of the most important parts of the language. Grammar allows us to speak confidently, correct and without errors. Often the speech of people who do not know grammar sounds very funny, because all the words sound ridiculous and incoherent. For example, everyone has heard how some foreigner tries to communicate in Russian. Frankly, they don't succeed and they look ridiculous. In order not to look like them, you need to know grammar.

A noun is one of the most important independent parts of speech, which is practically the most common part of speech. It has such unstable features as number and case. The case paradigm is change noun depending on the meaning it has in a sentence. In this article you will learn how to determine cases of nouns, what are indirect cases, how to ask questions about them correctly, as well as about the cases themselves and their questions.

Cases

The only rule for correct modification of nouns is the correct placement of the ending in connection with asked by the question. This is an easy task for native speakers, but foreigners need to remember the endings and identify them correctly.

Declensions

There is also 3 types of declination in nouns.

• First declension. Creatures name. masculine and feminine endings -a, -ya. For example, a flask, a pig.
• Second declension. Creatures name. masculine and neuter with endings -о, -е. For example, a tree, a well.
• Third declension. The name of feminine creatures with a zero ending, or ending in -ь. For example, horse, horse.

Changing nouns different declinations.

In Russian there is such a concept as indirect cases– these are all cases except the nominative.

They all have their own meaning:

Determinants

There are many ways to determine the case of a noun. The fastest, easiest and most effective way today is to use qualifiers. Different cases can be determined using the following determiners.

Using determiners makes it easier to change nouns by case. To do this, just put this word in front of the noun, and then ask a question and put the correct ending. For each case, it is enough to remember one word.

In addition, to determine case great value has a question. The table gives an idea of ​​what prepositions are used with case forms of nouns in the Russian language.

Cases are the foundation of Russian grammar and everyone is required to know each of them by heart. But it’s very easy to remember all of them; two days of cramming is enough to remember them for the rest of your life. Good luck!

Most people have already forgotten what they went through at school, and today they have difficulty remembering what cases are called and what they are intended for. However, sometimes the question arises about which case is called what, and why it was given exactly that name. Such a thought can settle very deeply, becoming obsessive, and not disappear until you remember why any of the cases got its name. And today we'll figure it out this issue.

What are cases

To begin with, if you have forgotten, we will remind you what cases are in general, and 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 kind of semantic or syntactic role. It is through cases that we understand what a particular phrase can mean in a specific context, inflecting parts of speech according to existing cases.

There are six cases that, despite the years that have passed since leaving school, most people probably still remember to this day. This:

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

Why are cases called that?

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

In order to remember which case certain words belong to, it is important to remember the basic questions to which they answer. For example, in order to answer the question why the prepositional case is called that way, it is necessary to understand that 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 words inclined to it can be substituted for the phrase “Sentence”. That is, for example: “Sentence about parents,” because sentences can be about someone or something.

Names were assigned to other cases in the Russian language in a similar way. And the sequence can be tracked very easily. For example, words inclined to the accusative case, which comes from the word “Blame,” answer the questions “Whom?” and “What?”, because you can blame either someone or something.

Questions are formed in a similar way when declension in other cases not discussed above:

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

Recently I came across a mention of the fact that in the Russian language there are more cases than the six that we studied at school. I began to dig further and, in general, counted as many as thirteen of them. This allowed me to deeply understand the essence of the concepts of case and declension, and to fall in love with the Russian language even more.

We more or less “know everything” about the six official cases, so I’ll immediately write about what I managed to dig up about the other seven: quantitative-severative, conditional, expectative, locative, vocative, inflective and counting. I will comment on everything without citing sources, because I don’t remember them at all; All this information can be collected bit by bit by feeding Yandex the names of the cases and paying attention to the fact that in the places found they are talking about the Russian language. In all discussions I will use own feeling language, so I can’t promise absolute correctness, but I hope that all this will be interesting to someone. I will be very glad to receive competent comments or simply the opinions of sympathizers.

Quantitative-separating the case is a type of genitive, in the sense that it answers its own questions and indicates some of its functions. Sometimes it can be easily replaced by a genitive, but sometimes it will sound clumsy. For example, should I offer you a cup of (who? what?) tea or (who? what?) tea? Please note that of the classical six cases, the form “tea” falls under the dative case (to whom? what?), but here it answers the question of the genitive (whom? what?). Some will say that the form “tea” sounds somewhat archaic, rustic. Not sure if this is true; I would rather say “tea” than “tea”, or even reformulate the sentence to use the accusative case (“Will you have some tea?”). Here’s another example: “pump up the heat.” Country style? Probably not. And the option “set the heat” hurts the ears. More examples: “pour juice”, “speed up”.

Depriving the case is used together with the negation of the verb in phrases like “not to know the truth” (but “to know the truth”), “not to have the right” (but “to have the right”). It cannot be said that in the version with negation we use the genitive case, because in some cases the words remain in the accusative form: “not drive a car” (not cars), “don’t drink vodka” (not vodka). This case arises only if we believe that each function of a noun must correspond to one specific case. Then the deprivative case is a case whose forms can correspond to the forms of the genitive or accusative. Sometimes they are interchangeable, but in some cases it is noticeably more convenient for us to use only one of the two options, which speaks in favor of the emptive case. For example, “not a step back” (implying “not to do”) sounds much more Russian than “not a step back.”

Waiting case is a rather complex phenomenon. We can wait (fear, beware, be embarrassed) for someone or something, that is, it seems that we should use the genitive case with these verbs. However, sometimes this genitive suddenly takes the form of an accusative. For example, we are waiting for (who? what?) a letter, but (who? what?) mom. But on the contrary, “wait for a letter” or “wait for mom” is somehow not in Russian (especially the second one). Of course, if these forms are considered acceptable, then there is no waitative case; it’s just that with the verb wait (and its brothers) you can use both the genitive and accusative cases. However, if these forms are not recognized as acceptable (which I personally am inclined to do), then the expectant case arises, which for some words coincides with the genitive, and for others with the accusative. In this case, we need a criterion for how to inflect a given word.

Let's try to understand the difference between the expressions “wait for a letter” and “wait for mom.” When we are waiting for a letter, we do not expect any activity from the letter. We are not waiting the letter itself, namely letters, delivery of a letter, arrival of a letter, that is, some phenomenon associated with its appearance in our mailbox. Writing plays a passive role here. But when we are waiting for our mother, we are not waiting for “the taxi driver to deliver my mother to our meeting place,” but rather for the mother herself, hoping that she will hurry to arrive on time (and it is quite possible that she will use a taxi). That is, it turns out that if an object expressed by a noun can influence its own appearance, then we wait for it in the accusative case (he will be “guilty” if he is late), and if the object itself cannot do anything, then we We are already waiting in the form of a genitive. Perhaps this has something to do with the concept of animacy? It may well be that this happens; for example, in accusative case there is also a similar effect - for inanimate objects in the second declension it coincides with the nominative (“sit on a chair”).

Local case is the most understandable of all special cases. It exists, it is used by each of us, its forms are obvious, they cannot be replaced with other words, and therefore it is very strange that it is not included in the school list. The prepositional case has two functions (there are more, but we will ignore this): indicating the object of speech and indicating the place or time of action. For example, you can talk about (who? what?) the square, and you can stand on (who? what?) the square, think about (who? what?) the room and be in (who? what?) the room. The first case is called the “explanatory case”, and the second is called the “local case”. For a square and a room, these forms do not depend on function. But, for example, at the nose, forest, snow, paradise, year - it depends. We're talking about the nose, but the weekend is right around the corner; We think about the year, but birthdays only come once a year. You can't walk in the forest, you can only walk in the forest.

The funny thing is that here the case is controlled not by the preposition, but by the meaning. That is, if we come up with a construction with the preposition “in”, when being in the corresponding place is not meant, we will definitely want to use the explanatory rather than the locative case. For example, “I know a lot about the forest.” If you say “I know a lot about the forest,” then it immediately seems that you only know a lot when you are in the forest, and, moreover, you forgot to say what exactly you know a lot about.

Vocative case is used when referring to the object expressed by a noun. IN different sources Two groups of examples are given. One group includes short forms names used only when addressing (Vasya, Kol, Pet, Len, Ol) and some other words (mom, dad). Another group includes outdated (female) or religious (god, gosh) forms of address. I don't like the idea of ​​treating it as a case because I don't think the resulting word is a noun at all. Therefore, by the way, the possessive case in Russian is not a case, since the words “Vasin” or “mother” are not nouns, but adjectives. But what part of speech is “Ol” then? I came across the opinion somewhere that this is an interjection, and, perhaps, I agree with this. Indeed, “Ol” differs from “hey” only in that it is formed from the name “Olya”, but in essence it is just an exclamation aimed at attracting attention.

Transformative the inclusive case is used in phrases like “went to be an astronaut” or “ran for president.” At school we were told that all cases except the nominative are indirect, but this is a simplification; That's not exactly the point of indirection. A word is placed in one of the indirect cases when it is not the subject. IN English There is only one indirect case, which is why it is sometimes called “indirect”. Its forms differ from direct ones only in a few words (I/me, we/us, they/them, etc.).

If, when analyzing the phrase “he became an astronaut,” we assume that “astronauts” is a plural form, then we need to put this word in the accusative case, and it turns out that “he became (who? what?) astronauts” . But they don’t say that, they say “he became an astronaut.” However, this is not the nominative case for three reasons: 1) “cosmonauts” have a preposition, which does not exist for nominative case; 2) the word “cosmonauts” is not a subject, so this case must be indirect; 3) the word “cosmonauts” in this context does not answer questions in the nominative case (who? what?) - you can’t say “who did he go to?”, only “who did he go to?” Consequently, we have the permutative case, which answers the questions of the accusative, but whose form coincides with the form of the nominative in the plural.

Counting case occurs when using some nouns with numerals. For example, we say “for (whom? what?) an hour,” but “three (whom? what?) hours,” that is, we use not the genitive, but a special, counting case. As another example, the noun “step” is called - supposedly, “two steps”. But I think I would say “two steps,” so it’s not clear how correct this example is. Independent group examples are nouns formed from adjectives. In the counting case, they answer the questions of the adjectives from which they come, and in the plural. For example, “there is no (who? what?) workshop,” but “two (what?) workshops.” Let us note that the use of the plural here is not justified by the fact that there are two workshops, because when we have two chairs we say “two chairs” and not “two chairs”; We use the plural only starting with five.

Total. Of all these tricky cases, only local and inflective seem to me to be full-fledged. Waiting also makes some sense, since I don’t like waiting for “weather” by the sea. Quantitative-severative and subtractive are too slippery and can often be replaced by the genitive, so they can be considered simply options, preferable in certain cases. I’m not ready to consider the vocative as a case at all, because, as I already said, it doesn’t seem to me that “uncle” is a noun. Well, as for the counting guy, the devil only knows. The effect with nouns formed from adjectives can be considered simply a glitch of the language, and the example with an hour seems to be only one.

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

Let's look briefly at all the cases.

• Nominative. Questions: “who?”, “what?”. Can only be used without a preposition and usually serves to express the subject of a sentence. Nature is waking up (what?)
  
• Genitive. Questions: “who?”, “what?”. I don't have (what?) a book.
  
• Dative. Questions: “to whom?”, “to what?”. I gave the apple to (who?) my sister.
  
• Accusative case. Questions: “who?”, “what?”. He watched (what?) a movie.
  
• Instrumental case. Questions: “by whom?”, “with what?”. The mother admired (who?) her daughter.
  
• Prepositional. Questions: “about whom?”, “about what?”. We use this case only with prepositions. We talked (about whom?) about my father.
  

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

1. Genitive. This case is used with both names and verbs. Examples of verb usage:
   • to designate an object to which the action applies only partially: bring bread (“not all the bread, but a little, some part of it”);
     
   • to denote the direct object of the action, when the verb has the particle “not”: did not read the book (the book is the object of the action);
     
   • to denote an object - with verbs expressing desire, achievement, removal: ask for a decision, demand an answer, lose peace.
     
   In common usage, the genitive case is used:
   • to express relations of belonging: Tchaikovsky's music, brother's room;
     
   • to designate a subject who has some attribute (clarity of thought - “a thought that is clear”) or an actor (the sound of waves - “the waves are noisy”);
     
   • to designate the object of action; the action is expressed by a noun derived from the verb: sending a parcel. The verb from which the noun is formed must be transitive (i.e. the action passes to the object): send (what?) a parcel - sending a parcel;
     
   • to denote a certain quantity: a flock of sheep, a glass of water.
     
   If the genitive case is used next to an adjective in the comparative degree, it denotes the subject of such comparison: brighter (what?) the sun, more (what?) a kilometer.
   
2. Dative. Usually this case is used with verbs (write to grandma, help a friend), but there is also a common 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 indicate a subject in a certain state. Mother couldn't sleep. The girl wanted to play.
   
3. Accusative case. This case is mainly used with 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 denote space: walk (what?) a kilometer.
     
   It happens that words in the nominative and accusative cases are written the same way, but auxiliary questions very similar to them. There was (what?) a maple tree growing in the park. The hurricane broke (what?) the maple tree. Maple is a noun with a zero ending and does not change in the nominative or accusative case. Try substituting any other word that has an ending to see how it changes. In the park there grew (what?) a birch tree (“-a” / “-ya” is the ending of the name). The hurricane broke (what?) a birch tree (“-у”/“-yu” is the ending of the v.p.). Another important indication of the case: in front of us is an object (maple) to which the action (to break) is directed. And one more thing: in a sentence, the word in the accusative case plays the role of an object (and not the 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 schoolboy;
     
   • object to which the action is directed: manage the department;
     
   • sign: appear handsome;
     
   • space: pass by;
     
   • method of action: speak in a deep voice;
     
   • comparison: walk like a rooster.
     
   The instrumental case can be used with verbal nouns: department management, cross stitch. It can also express different attitudes: dissatisfied with work, delighted with success.
   
5. Prepositional. This case exists only with prepositions: o (about / about), in (in), on, by, at. If you try to drop the pretext, case form it won't work: brother. The word is clearly missing something - the preposition “o”. In other cases, the word “brother” is completely independent: brother came, brother’s words, said to brother, I see brother, done by brother.
   The prepositional case in combination with verbs expresses:
   • object of thoughts, feelings, actions, speech, states: think about the past, take care of grandfather, talk about vacations;
     
   • scene: wandering around the field;
     
   • duration: arrive in November;
     
   • an object that allows you to perform an action: play the violin;
     
   • method of action: convey in words;
     
   • mode of action: scream in rage.
     
   A noun in the prepositional case usually coexists with 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.