What case endings do nouns have? You will find the answer to this question in the materials of the presented article. We will also tell you about the difference between case endings of nouns of different declension and give some examples.
General information
Knowing how words are changed in cases is extremely important. After all, the spelling of case endings brings a lot of problems during the creation of a competent text. It should be noted that the choice of a letter in nouns depends entirely on which particular declension they relate to. By the way, errors in the writing of the endings -and or -e occur only in some case forms: the dative, genitive and prepositional cases. That is why it is recommended to remember them.
What is declination? Declension Types
The nominal parts of speech in the Russian language are declined in accordance with the adjective type, as well as the substantive and pronoun. In this article, we are only interested in substantive declination. It is divided into three subtypes. Let's consider them in more detail:
- According to the 1st declension, nouns (in the singular) of the common (crybaby), masculine (papa) and feminine (mother) gender, which have the endings -th or -a in the nominative case, change.
- According to the 2nd declension, nouns (in the singular) of the masculine gender, with a zero ending (nail, house) or the ending –e, –o (home, house), as well as a neuter ending with the endings –e, –e and –– change o (field, spear, window) in the nominative case.
- According to the 3rd declension, nouns (singular) of the feminine gender change that end in a hissing or soft consonant (for example, pride, thought, branch). If such a word has a hissing consonant at the end, then its belonging to the 3rd declension should be indicated by a soft sign (for example, mouse, rye, oven, etc.).
Cases of singular nouns
To write correctly, for example, a letter, it is desirable to know all the possible endings of nouns of different declensions. To do this, you should decline the corresponding words in the cases.
Nouns of the 1st declension
- Nominative case (who? What?) - dad (a), willow (a), Kol (i), Yul (i).
- The genitive case (what? Whom?) - dad (s), willow (s), Kol (s), Yul (s).
- Dative case (why? To whom?) - pop (e), willow (e), Kol (e), Yul (e).
- Accusative case (what? Whom?) - dad (y), willow (y), Kol (y), Yul (y).
- The instrumental case (what? By whom?) - dad (oh), willow (oh), Kol (s), Yul (s).
- The prepositional case (what? About whom?) Is about popes (e), about iv (e), about Kol (e), about Yul (e).
The case endings of the 1st declension nouns are the same for all similar words. That is why, if you have difficulties while writing them, then you can safely look into this table and determine the correct ending.
Nouns of the 2nd declension
- The nominative case (who? What?) - deer (_), watermelon (_), gender (e), sky (o).
- The genitive case (why? Whom?) - deer (I), watermelon (a), gender (I), sky (a).
- Dative case (why? To whom?) - deer (s), watermelon (s), gender (s), sky (s).
- Accusative case (what? Whom?) - deer (I), watermelon (_), gender (e), sky (o).
- The instrumental case (what? By whom?) - deer (eat), watermelon (oi), gender (eat), sky (ohm).
- The prepositional case (about whom? About what?) Is about deer (e), about watermelon (e), about gender (e), about heaven (e).
Nouns of the 3rd declension
- The nominative case (who? What?) - lynx (_), mouse (_).
- The genitive case (what? Whom?) - lynx (s), mouse (s).
- Dative case (why? To whom?) - Lynx (s), mouse (s).
- Accusative case (what? Whom?) - lynx (_), mouse (_).
- The instrumental case (by what? By whom?) - lynx (s), mouse (s).
- Prepositional case (what? About whom?) - about the lynx (s), about the mouse (s).
Unstressed Case Nouns
In order not to make mistakes while writing the text, teachers recommend that their students remember the endings of all three declensions. However, it is not as simple as it seems at first glance. It is especially difficult to remember those words that have unstressed case endings. But for this case, in the Russian language there is a separate rule. Imagine it right now.
If case endings of nouns stand in an unstressed position, then their correct spelling is determined by checking words of the same type of declension, which end in a similar letter, under stress. Here is an example:
- elbow, field, lake (face, window, chisel);
- about the book, (about the hand);
- horses, bowls (stumps, tables);
- guard, house, field, glue (knife, table, point, window);
- lake, chair, stone (windows, tables, stump);
- about the guardian, about the teacher, in the floor, about the dress (about the knife, about the horse, in the window, about the linen);
- songs, servants, windows (teachers, cities, seas).
Plural nouns
About which case endings have singular nouns, we examined above. But sometimes it is required to correctly decline the words in the plural. It should be specially noted that their case endings do not depend on what declension the initial form of the noun has. However, they can noticeably differ in inanimate and animate objects (not always).
Inanimate Plural Nouns
- Nominative case (what?) - chairs (I), watermelon (s).
- Genitive (what?) - chairs (s), watermelon (s).
- Dative case (what?) - chairs (pits), watermelon (s).
- Accusative case (what?) - chairs (I), watermelon (s).
- An instrumental case (what?) - chairs (s), watermelon (s).
- Prepositional case (what?) - about chairs (s), watermelon (s).
Animate nouns in the plural
- Nominative case (who?) - lan (s), lioness (s).
- Genitive (whom?) - lan (s), lionesses (_).
- Dative case (to whom?) - lan (yam), lioness (s).
- Accusative case (who?) - lan (s), lionesses (_).
- The instrumental case (by whom?) - lan (s), lionesses (s).
- Prepositional case (about whom?) - About lan (s), lionesses (ah).
Diverse words (nouns)
As mentioned above, nouns have certain case endings, depending on which of the three declensions they relate to. However, in Russian there are also often divergent words. These include such nouns that, after a change in cases, have the endings of different declensions.
So, ten words of the middle gender, which end in –me, refer to divergent nouns. Let's call them in order:
- burden;
- banner;
- tribe;
- time;
- stirrup;
- udder;
- crown;
- flame;
- name;
- seed.
Among other things, the word masculine “path” refers to the divergent. In order to correctly incline such nouns, you should know that when they change, they have the suffix -en- or -yon (for example: a banner - a banner, a crown - a crown, a name - names, etc.).
Note
Nouns ending in -i (series, army, Mary, line, etc.) are a special variant of declension. Thus, in the forms of the prepositional, genitive and dative cases, they have the ending -and. Here is an example:
- Genitive (what? Whom?) - series (s), army (s), Marie (s), line (s).
- Dative case (why? To whom?) - series (s), army (s), Marie (s), line (s).
- Prepositional case (what? About whom?) - about the series (s), about the army (s), about Marie (s), about the line (s).
It should be noted that these words are not recommended to be confused with nouns ending in -th (for example, Natalya, Marya, Sofya). After all, they are inclined according to the general rules, and also have the ending -e in the forms of the prepositional and dative cases (Natalya, Mariye, Sofya).
By the way, proper names, which are called settlements (Kashin, Borodino Kalinin), have a special form in the instrumental case (singular). Thus, the words presented are modeled after the nouns of the 2nd declension and have a case ending with -th (Kalinin, Kashin, Borodin). It is impossible not to say that such words should not be confused with Russian surnames (Kashin, Borodin, Kalinin), which in the instrumental case have the ending ith (Kalinin, Kashin, Borodin).