Many foreigners who start to learn Russian have never faced the cases before. The nouns seem to be changing their form in an unpredictable way. The cases system may seem very complicated (and let’s admit, it is not easy!) but it has a clear role in the Russian language. A brief introduction for Russian Cases for you in today’s article
Why does the Russian language need cases?
You may already know that in Russian you the word order is not strict. While in English, for example, you can say “I love you” and this is basically the only option, Russian offers the following ones:
Я тебя люблю/ Тебя люблю я/ Люблю тебя я… and you can keep changing the words places
The reason for this freedom is the case system. You can put the word anywhere in the sentence and the cases will show you which role a noun (or a pronoun) has in a sentence.
Compare these two sentences:
- Анна дала ручку подруге
- Анне дала ручку подруга
The first sentence says – Anna gave a pen to a friend, while the second – A friend gave a pen to Anna
Six basic cases
There are 6 main cases in Russian, and although the linguists probably can name more, 6 is more than enough to speak Russian. Each case answers a particular question and has a particular meaning:
- Nominative кто/что?
- Genitive кого/чего?
- Dative кому/чему?
- Accusative кого/что?
- Instrumental кем/чем?
- Prepositional о ком/о чем?
Each case has a number of meanings. For example – Nominative is always a subject in the sentence, this is the basic form of a noun. Genitive represents ownership, Instrumental – shows, which means were used to complete an action.
Can I speak without cases?
It is completely fine if you confuse cases. It takes a lot of time and efforts to use the case system correctly. But it is better to confuse cases, than not to use them at all. The cases contain a part of each sentence meaning, so speaking Russian without using cases is barely possible.
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