Russian declension

Nouns

Nominal declension is subject to six cases – nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, and prepositional – in two numbers (singular and plural), and absolutely obeying grammatical gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter). Up to ten additional cases are identified in linguistics textbooks, although all of them are either incomplete (do not apply to all nouns) or degenerate (appear identical to one of the six simple cases). The most recognized additional cases are locative (в лесу, в крови, в слезах), partitive (чаю, сахару, коньяку), and several forms of vocative (Господи, Боже, отче). The adjectives, pronouns, and the first two cardinal numbers further vary by gender. Old Russian also had a third number, the dual, but it has been lost except for its use in the nominative and accusative cases with the numbers two, three and four (e.g. два стула [dvɐ ˈstulə], "two chairs", now reanalyzed as genitive singular).

Russian noun cases often replace the usage of prepositions in Indo-European languages. Their usage can be summarised as:

There are no articles, neither definite or indefinite (such as the, a, an in English), in the Russian language. The sense of a noun is determined from the context in which it appears. That said, there are some means of expressing whether a noun is definite or indefinite. They are:

The category of animacy is relevant in Russian nominal and adjectival declension. Specifically, the accusative has two possible forms in many paradigms, depending on the animacy of the referent. For animate referents (sentient species, some animals, professions and occupations), the accusative form is generally identical to the genitive form (genitive-accusative syncretism). For inanimate referents (simple lifeforms, objects, states, notions), the accusative form is identical to the nominative form (genitive-nominative syncretism). This principle is relevant for masculine singular nouns of the second declension (see below) and adjectives, and for all plural paradigms (with no gender distinction). In the tables below, this behavior is indicated by the abbreviation N or G in the row corresponding to the accusative case.

In Russian there are three declensions:

There are also a group of several irregular "different-declension nouns" (Russian: разносклоняемые существительные), consisting of a few neuter nouns ending in -мя (e.g. время "time") and one masculine noun путь "way". However, these nouns and their forms have sufficient similarity with feminine third declension nouns that some scholars such as Litnevskaya consider them to be non-feminine forms of this declension, as written in the tables below.

Nouns ending with -ий, -ия, -ие (not to be confused with substantivated adjectives) are written with -ии instead of -ие in Prepositional (as this ending is never stressed, there is no difference in pronunciation): тече́ние - в ни́жнем тече́нии реки́ "streaming - in lower streaming of a river". But if words в течение and в продолжение are representing compound preposition meaning "while, during the time of", they are written with -е: в тече́ние ча́са "in a time of an hour". For nouns ending in -ья, -ье, or -ьё, using -ьи in the Prepositional (where endings of some of them are stressed) is usually erroneous, but in poetic speech it may be acceptable (as we replace -ии with -ьи for metric or rhyming purposes): Весь день она́ лежа́ла в забытьи́ (F. Tyutchev).

First declension

Most first-declension nouns are feminine, some masculine. The same endings apply for both genders.

1. After a sibilant or a velar (г, к, or х) consonant, и is written.
2. After a sibilant, о is written when stressed; е when unstressed.
3. After a soft consonant, ё is written when stressed; е when unstressed.

Examples: рабо́та - a work/job, ба́ня - a bathhouse, кни́га - a book, ли́ния - a line

Note: In Instrumental case of singular number you can also meet -ою and -ею endings instead of -ой and -ей.

Second declension - masculine nouns

Nouns ending in a consonant are marked in the following table with - (thus no ending).

Notes:

1. After a sibilant (ж, ч, ш) or a velar (г, к, or х) consonant, и is written. And а for some words (глаз — глаза, доктор — доктора, etc.).
2. After a sibilant, ей is written.
3. After a soft consonant, ё is written when stressed; е when unstressed.

Examples

Second declension - virtually entirely neuter nouns

1. After a sibilant, о is written when stressed; е when unstressed.
2. After a soft consonant, ё is written when stressed; е when unstressed.
3. For nouns ending in ие in the nominative singular, и is written (but е when stressed — for the word остриё).
4. After a consonant use ей otherwise use й.
5. Also: some masculine nouns ending in -о in the nominative singular (<span title="diminitive from дом 'house'">доми́шко); the only masculine noun ending in -е in this declension (подмасте́рье).

Examples ме́сто (n) – a place, мо́ре (n) – a sea, зда́ние (n) – a building

Third declension

The third declension is mostly for feminine nouns, with some masculine and neuter.

1. After a sibilant, а is written.

Examples: кость (f) – a bone, мышь (f) – a mouse, и́мя (n) – a name

Irregular plural forms

There are various kinds of irregularities in forming plurals. Some words have an irregular plural form, but a few use suppletion, being substituted by a different root altogether. Historically, some of these irregularities come from older declensional patterns that have become mostly obsolete in modern Russian.

1. If the word лист has the lexical meaning "paper", then its declension is normal (лист → листы). If it has lexical meaning "leaf (of a tree)", its declension is лист → листья.

Undeclined nouns

Some nouns (such as borrowings from other languages, abbreviations, etc.) are not modified when they change number and case. This appears mostly when their gender appears to have no ending in any declension which suits the final part of the word: these are masculine names on vowels different from -а/-я, female names on hard consonants (names like Триш "Trish" won't take the soft sign to go into third declension like native мышь "mouse"). Most borrowed words ending in Russian in э/е, и, о, у and stressed а are not declined: кафе, пальто (French: paletot), Дюма etc. Most abbreviations are undeclined (one exception is вуз). Many people also think that Georgian surnames on -ия like Данелия (Georgian: დანელია) shouldn't be declined since they are originally something like Russian possessive genitives.

Person names

Traditionally, full Russian name consists of a person name (и́мя - given name or first name), patronym (о́тчество - father's name as middle name) and a family name (фами́лия - surname or last name). All of these words have the same grammatical gender as biological one. Slavic, as well as Greek, Roman, Jewish and other person names of European or Semitic origin loaned centuries ago have gender-specific versions of respective patronyms. To produce a patronym, suffixes -вич- and -вн- are used with final vowel addition or modification: -о for hard consonant (Петро́вич/Петро́вна ⇐ son/daughter of Пётр), -ье for -ий (Григо́рьевич/Григо́рьевна ⇐ Григо́рий), and -е for other cases (Матве́евич/Матве́евна ⇐ Матве́й, И́горевич/И́горевна ⇐ И́горь). Some person names also have versions for both males and females (Алекса́ндр - Алекса́ндра, Евге́ний - Евге́ния).

Additionally, Slavic names have short forms, usually meant for affectionate calls (Ива́н - Ва́ня, А́нна - А́ня; equivalent of Johny, Annie, etc.). Short forms by themselves can form "reemerging" Vocative case (sometimes called Neo-vocative); it's used for calling a familiar person, substituting Nominative singular by removing last vowel (Артём - Тёма - Тём, О́льга - О́ля - Оль). For this reason Neo-vocative is not possible for male names, that can't produce short forms with a final vowel (including some popular ones: Влади́мир, Вита́лий, И́горь). Likewise, there is Neo-vocative form for close relatives: мать - ма́ма - мам (mother - mommy - mom), оте́ц - па́па - пап (father - daddy - dad). When replacing Nominative plural (used for always plural nouns), it can be used for collective calls: ребя́та ("guys, lads") - ребя́т, девча́та ("gals") - девча́т.

Most family names in Russia are also gender-specific (shown below in male/female pairs) and declinable like most words (including plural form to denote a married couple or a whole family, as "The Smiths"). They can be divided in these categories (sorted by occurrence):

Examples:

Here male name is composed of 2nd declention nouns, but there are exceptional endings for Instrumental (patronym: -ем, not -ом; family name: -ым, not -ом). Female name is in 1st declention, but ending -ой is used for a family name in all oblique cases. Plural follows adjectival declention, except that Nominative is short -ы.

Adjectives

A Russian adjective (имя прилагательное) is usually placed before the noun it qualifies, and it agrees with the noun in case, gender, and number. With the exception of a few invariant forms borrowed from other languages, such as беж 'beige' or хаки 'khaki', most adjectives follow one of a small number of regular declension patterns, except for some which provide difficulty in forming the short form. In modern Russian, the short form appears only in the nominative and is used when the adjective is in a predicative role; formerly (as in the bylinas) short adjectives appeared in all other forms and roles, which are not used in modern language, but are nonetheless understandable to Russian speakers as they are declined exactly like nouns of the corresponding gender.

Adjectives may be divided into three general groups:

Adjectival declension

The pattern described below suits for full forms of most adjectives, except possessive ones; it is also used for substantivated adjectives as учёный and for adjectival participles.

1. After a sibilant or velar consonant, и, instead of ы, is written.
2. When a masculine adjective ends in -ой, the -ой is stressed.
3. After a sibilant consonant, neuter adjectives end in ее. It is sometimes called the хорошее rule.
4. Accusative in the masculine gender and in plural depends on animacy, as for nouns.
5. Instrumental feminine ending -ой/ей has alternative form -ою/ею for all adjectives, which has only stylistical difference.

Russian differentiates between hard-stem (as above) and soft-stem adjectives. Note the following:

Examples:

Before 1917, adjectival declension looked quite different, at least in writing; for example, there were special feminine plural forms, as in French. In modern editions of classical poetry some elements of this system are still used if they are important for rhyme or metrics. A notable example is ending -ыя (bisyllabic) instead of -ой (monosyllabic) for genitive single female adjectives, which were considered bookish and deprecated even in the times of Alexandr Pushkin but were still used by him in lines such as «тайна брачныя постели» («Евгений Онегин», IV, L).

Comparison of adjectives

Comparison forms are usual only for qualitative adjectives and adverbs. Comparative and superlative synthetic forms are not part of the paradigm of original adjective but are different lexical items, since not all qualitative adjectives have them. Few adjectives have irregular forms which are declined as usual adjectives: большой 'big' — больший 'bigger', хороший 'good' — лучший 'better'. Most synthetically derived comparative forms are derived by adding -ее or -ей to adjective stem: красный 'red' — краснее 'more red'; these forms are difficult to distinguish from adverbs, and probably they are adverbs. Superlative synthetic forms are derived by adding suffix -ейш- or -айш- and additionally sometimes prefix наи-, or using special comparative form with наи-: добрый 'kind' — добрейший 'the kindest', большой 'big' — наибольший 'the biggest'.

Another way of comparison are analytical forms with adverbs более 'more' / менее 'less' and самый 'most' / наиболее 'most' / наименее 'least': добрый 'kind' — более добрый 'kinder' — самый добрый 'the kindest'. This way is rarely used if special comparative forms exists.

Possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives are used in Russian to a less extent than in most other Slavic languages, but are still in use. They answer the questions чей? чья? чьё? чьи? (whose?) and denote only animated possessors. Alternative for possessive adjectives are possessive genitives which are used much more commonly. There are three suffixes to form them: -ов/ев, -ын/ин and -ий.

Suffix -ов/ев is used to form adjective from a word denoting single human which is masculine and ends on consonant; selection depends on if the stem hard or soft. Suffix -ын/ин is similar but is attached to feminine words or masculine ending in -а/я. Both types are more common in spoken language than in literary (though being acceptable in both styles) and generally are forms of kinship terms, given names and their diminutives: мама — мамин 'mom's', отец — отцов 'father's', Саша — Сашин 'Sasha's' /for diminutives from both Alexandr and Alexandra/. Words of this type also are common as Russian surnames, like Пушкин (derived from пушка 'gun' which used to be a nickname).

Adjectives on -ов and -ин are declined via mixed declension: some of their forms are nominal, some are adjectival, and some are ambivalent.

Adjectives on -ий (speaking about suffix, not case ending; before vowels, this suffix deceases to single sound /j/ and is written as ь) are used for deriving adjectives mostly from animal species (in Old Russian language, this suffix derived possessive adjectives from plural possessors): лиса 'fox' — лисий 'of a fox', 'likely for a fox'. Declension of such adjectives is nominal in nominative and accusative (except masculine and plural animated accusative) and adjectival for other forms.

Personal pronouns

Possessive adjectives and pronouns

Unlike English, Russian uses the same form for a possessive adjective and the corresponding possessive pronoun. In Russian grammar they are called possessive pronouns притяжательные местоимения (compare with possessive adjectives like Peter's = петин above). The following rules apply:

Interrogative pronouns

Numerals

Russian have several main classes of numerals (числи́тельные): cardinal, ordinal, collective, and fractional constructions. It also has other types of words, relative to numbers:

Here are the numerals from 0 to 10:

Declension of cardinal numerals

Declension of numerals and numeral constructions in Russian is a complicated thing, sometimes difficult to do correctly even for native speakers.

Different Russian numerals have very different types of declension. The word оди́н (one) is declined by number, (in singular) gender and case. The word два (two) is declined by gender and case, all other numbers have only case to decline by. The words for 50, 60, 70, 80, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 900 are unique for Russian as declined not only with ending in their end, but also with part of word in their middle (since they are originally composed from two words): Nom. пять'деся́т (50) - Gen. пяти́десяти etc. (compare пять деся́тков - пяти́ деся́тков "five tens").

Compound number phrases are created without any unions: сто пятьдеся́т три ры́бы "153 fishes". All numerals are declined contemporary (in spoken language not always). If numeral is in Nominative or Accusative, ending of the noun is defined by the last numeral word (the least order, see examples below), but this may not be true for an adjective attached to this noun.

Most numbers ending with "1" (in any gender: оди́н, одна́, одно́) require Nominative singular for a noun: два́дцать одна́ маши́на (21 cars), сто пятьдеся́т оди́н челове́к (151 people). Most numbers ending with "2", "3", "4" (два/две, три, четы́ре) require Genitive singular: три соба́ки (3 dogs), со́рок два окна́ (42 windows). All other numbers (including 0 and those ending with it) require Genitive plural: пять я́блок (5 apples), де́сять рубле́й (10 rubles). Genitive plural is also used for numbers ending with 11 to 14 and with inexact numerals: сто оди́ннадцать ме́тров (111 meters); мно́го домо́в (many houses). Nominative plural is used only without numerals: э́ти дома́ (these houses); cf. три до́ма (3 houses; G. sg.). These rules apply only for integer numbers. For rational numbers see below.

In oblique cases, noun and number take both this case, except that the numbers ending with "thousand", "million", "billion" etc. (nouns: ты́сяча (f.), миллио́н (m.), миллиа́рд (m.)) in singular or in plural are regarded as nouns and always require Genitive case in plural: пятью́ ты́сячами (Instr.) маши́н (Gen.); cf. пятью́ маши́нами and пятью́ ты́сячами тремяста́ми маши́нами (all Instr.). Initial (leftmost) numeral "1" can be omitted in combinations (одна́) ты́сяча (ты́сяча и одна́ ночь - 1001 nights), (оди́н) миллио́н, etc.

Nouns со́тня ("approximately 100", f.) and па́ра ("pair", f.) can be declined and can form compound numerals: три со́тни (≈300), пять пар носко́в (5 pair of socks). Approximate numbers are colloquially formed by reversing word order, exchanging numeral and noun: мину́ты три (≈3 minutes). Ranges (hyphenated) are also possible: пять-шесть дней (5-6 days), дней пять-шесть (probably 5-6 days). The word ми́нус (minus) declines if standalone, but does not for negative numbers: минус три гра́дуса - minus three degrees (wrong: *минуса три градуса); however: три минуса - three minuses.

Dative, Instrumental and Prepositional cases for "zero" more often use нул- root instead of нол-. The numbers from 11 to 19 are: оди́ннадцать, двена́дцать, трина́дцать, четы́рнадцать, пятна́дцать, шестна́дцать, семна́дцать, восемна́дцать, девятна́дцать. They decline in the same way as 20 (два́дцать).

Note for superscript case notations: small letters denote singular forms, capitals denote plural. Метр is masculine (important for "51"); both метр and тысяча are inanimate (important for Accusative).

Collective numerals

Collective numerals (Russian: собирательные числительные) are used in Russian (and many other Slavic languages) instead of usual cardinal ones in specific lexical and semantic situations. Russian collective numerals are different from the cardinal numerals in that the former emphasize ‘the totality’ or ‘the aggregate as a whole’, while the latter – ‘the individuated quantity’. Only numerals from 2 (двое) to 7 (семеро) are actively used nowadays, while 8 to 10 are seldom used and 11–13 are not normative; word оба (both) is also considered to be collective numeral. In nominative and accusative, they always force the noun into genitive plural form (while their own accusative form is dependent from animacy of the noun): трое друзей на охоту пошли, вижу двоих мужчин, вижу двое саней. These numerals are seldom used in oblique cases, especially instrumental. Here comes a brief table of cases of their usage:

Dobrushina and Panteleeva (2008), having analyzed usage of два/двое in a Russian corpus, summarize cases of usage of collective numerals in the following common rules:

1. Collective numerals denote number of persons likely to have collective behaviour, i.e., existence in groups, not one by one: боевики́ 'militants', жи́тели 'inhabitants', пассажи́ры 'passengers', солда́ты 'soldiers'.
2. Collective numbers are used while denoting several persons to emphasize unity, cohesion of this group.
3. Contexts of nominal groups with collective numerals have properties showing their individualization and dedication: referentness, empathy, definiteness; they are unlikely to be out of focus.

Ordinal numerals

Ordinal numbers have grammatically no differences with adjectives. While forming them, upper three orders of numerals are agglutinated to nearest dividing power of 1000, which results in constructing some of the longest natural Russian words, e.g. стапятидесятитрёхты́сячный (153,000-th), while the next is сто пятьдеся́т три ты́сячи пе́рвый (153,001-st). In the latter example, only the last word is declined with noun.

Fractions

Fractions are formed as: (how much parts), expressed by cardinal number in case of the phrase, plus (of how numerous parts), expressed by ordinal number; the construction is formed as like it were related to word часть "part" (grammatically feminine), which is usually omitted. Noun to such construction always comes in Genitive single, also as like it belonged to word часть: девяно́сто две пятидеся́тых то́нны "92/50 tons". If an integer precedes a fraction, it is bound to it usually with union и, while the noun remains in Genitive: два и три восьмы́х оборо́та "2 3/8 turns" (оборо́т is masculine, so the numeral is два, not *две).

Fractions 1/2, 1/3 and 1/4 have proper names (nouns): полови́на, треть and че́тверть, which are used instead of ordinal numbers. They are also often added with preposition с, while form of noun appears to be related to the integer part rather than to the fraction: де́сять с че́твертью [Instr.] оборо́тов [Gen.] "10 1/4 turns". Prefixes пол- (with Genitive) and полу- (with Nominative) are used for "half" of something: пол-лимо́на (half of a lemon), полчаса́ (half an hour; but: полови́на ча́са); полуме́сяц (half moon, crescent). Words with пол- are not declined, and there is a set of rules for writing with or without dash.

For "1 1/2" there is a special word полтора́ (feminine полторы́; in oblique cases полу́тора; requires Genitive): полтора́ я́блока - 3/2 apples. It can be used with larger numbers (полторы́ ты́сячи - 1 500, полтора миллио́на - 1 500 000) and, for approximate values, with smaller numbers (полтора деся́тка - ≈15, полторы со́тни - ≈150). There was also now-outdated form полтора́ста for exactly 150. As with other single-word numerals, it's possible to form nouns and multiplicative adjectives, associated with "1.5": полу́торка (old truck with 1.5 tonnes of payload capacity), полтора́шка (1.5 liter plastic bottle for beverage); полу́торный (something of 150% amount).

To read decimal fractions, convert them to simple ones: 2,71828 = 2+71828/100000 - два и се́мьдесят одна́ ты́сяча восемьсо́т два́дцать во́семь стоты́сячных. After integer in such cases is often used word це́лая (substantiated adjective "full, integer", which also refers to omitted word часть and thus is feminine): 3,14 - три це́лых (и) четы́рнадцать соты́х (union is often omitted); word це́лая can appear also in naming non-decimal simple fractions: 2 3/8 - две це́лых три восьмы́х. Zero before comma is often read: 0,01 = 0+1/100 - ноль це́лых одна́ со́тая (shortly: одна́ со́тая). Informally, decimal fractional part can be read more conveniently as sequence of simple digits and numbers: два и семь-восемна́дцать-два́дцать во́семь. Same method is used to read long numerals unrelated to a noun (phone numbers, address indexes, etc.), grouping two or three digits: 123406 - сто два́дцать три четы́реста шесть, двенадцать три́дцать четы́ре ноль шесть (forced ноль added to avoid missing digit).

Count form

Russian also has so-called "count form" (счётная форма) for use by nouns in numerical phrases instead of Genitive plural (for some words mandatory, for others optional), mainly with units of measure (especially derived from names): во́семь бит (8 bits; not *би́тов), шестна́дцать байт (16 bytes), две́сти два́дцать вольт (220 volts), пять килогра́мм(ов) (5 kilograms; optional). But: коли́чество ба́йтов (amount of bytes), изба́виться от ли́шних килогра́ммов (get rid of excess kilograms).

Сount form also exists for paucal numbers (1.5, 2, 3 and 4); usually it coincides with Genitive singular, but has notable exceptions with stressed endings: два часа́ (2 hours), but середи́на ча́са (middle of an hour); два́дцать два шара́ (22 balls), but объём ша́ра (volume of the ball); три ряда́ (3 rows/lines), but вы́йти из ря́да (step out of the line); четы́ре шага́ (4 steps), but полша́га (half a step). Полчаса́ (half an hour) is additional exception; other nouns with пол- prefix does not have stressed -а ending.

Some nouns totally change for their Genitive plural forms: 4 го́да, but 5 лет (years); 3 челове́ка, but 30 люде́й/челове́к (people; optional). Сount forms for adjectives and nouns with adjectival declension after numerals require Genitive plural and Nominative plural: два лу́чших (G. pl.) игрока́ (G. sg.) "2 best players"; три зелёные (N. pl.) прямы́е (N. pl.) "3 green strait_lines", but три зелёных (G. pl.) прямы́х (G. pl.) штриха́ (G. sg.) "3 green strait strokes".