Некоторые лингвисты считают, что русский язык is rich in cases. It means that they are not six, as schoolchildren are studying, but more. And, as it turns out, they have every reason to hold such an opinion. So, how many cases are there in Russian? Let's try to figure this out.
Case system
The term "case" in Greek means "fall", and from Latin - "fall".
The case (declension) is a grammatical category,intended to show the syntactic role of nouns and their interaction with other words of the sentence. In addition to the noun, the adjectives, participles, numerals, pronouns also change with case. It is worth noting that the case of these adjectival words depends on the declension of the noun being determined. It is expressed by a change in the ending.
How many cases are in Russian?
Considering the morphology of the Russian language, as a rule, there are six main cases:
- Nominative (the initial form of declension).
- Genitive.
- Dative.
- Accusative.
- Instrumental.
- Prepositional.
The enumerated cases are called basic in connection withwide use. In addition, it should be noted that their prevalence is related to the fact that the parts of speech that were mentioned earlier have grammatical forms for the listed cases.
For the correct declension of words, it is necessary to know that all the cases answer questions. In addition, each of them expresses several meanings. We will become acquainted with each of them in more detail.
Nominative case
Correspond to the questions "who?", "What?"To recognize this case, you need to add the word" is "to the noun. For example: is there (that?) A light bulb. It is used without pretexts. The only number has these endings:
- 1 decline: -a, -y.
- 2 declination: -o, -e or zero.
- 3 declination: zero ending.
And in the plural: -ы, -и, -а, -я.
Since the nominative case is the original case word form, its duties include:
- name the subject of the action or state (mother removes, children are tired);
- identify, characterize an object, person, or action (nOur daughter is a doctor; War is a disaster);
- name the subject of the message, subject, action, property (used in sentences of this type: Morning. The sun.);
- Express an appeal to the interlocutor (Baby how old are you?).
Genitive
Correspond to the questions of "whom?", "What?" To recognize this case, it is necessary to substitute the word "no" to the noun. For example: no (what?) Of snow. It is used with prepositions near, at, after, without, about, from, for, around, to, from, with,. The only number is defined by such endings:
- 1 decline: -y, -and.
- 2 declination: -a, -ya.
- 3 declination: -and.
The plural has an ending: zero, -ow, -ev, -y.
The genitive case may refer to:
- Belonging to the object (car son).
- The property carrier (blue sky).
- The object to which the action is directed (watching TV).
- The subject performing the action (Mom's arrival).
- Parts of the whole (piece of cake).
Dative
Words in the dative case answer questions "to whom?", "To what?". To recognize this case, it is necessary to substitute the word "ladies" for the noun. For example: ladies (to whom?) sister. They are used with prepositions to, to. In the singular, words in the dative case end in:
- 1 decline: -e, -and.
- 2 declination: -y, -yu.
- 3 declination: -and.
The plural of declination is characterized by graduation: -am, -yam.
Words in the dative case are intended to mean:
- Destination of action (gave a friend's magazine, wrote a letter to my mother);
- Subject of action or condition (the guys could not sleep).
Accusative
Correspond to the questions of "whom?", "What?". To recognize this case, it is necessary to substitute the word "see" for the noun. For example: I see (whom?) Mom. It is used with prepositions in, out, on, about, through. The only numbers correspond to the endings:
- 1 decline: -y, -yu.
- 2 declination: -o, -e.
- 3 declination: zero ending.
To the plural: zero ending, -y, -i, -a, -y, -y.
Accusative case, in turn:
- Indicates the action object (tidy up the room).
- Expresses quantity, space, distance, time measure (drive a kilometer, weigh a ton, wait a year, cost a penny).
Instrumental case
Corresponds to the questions "by whom?", "What?". To recognize this case, you need to put the word "proud" to the noun. For example: proud (of whom?) Son. Used with prepositions for, above, under, before, with. The singular has endings:
- 1 declension: th (s), th (s).
- 2 declension: th, th.
- 3 declension: th.
Plural: sami, sami.
The instrumental case is intended to mean:
- Permanent or temporary employment of any activity (serves as a soldier, worked as a plumber).
- The subject of the action is for passive constructions (house demolished by workers).
- Action object (breathe oxygen).
- Tool or means of action (peroxide treatment).
- Locations (go footpath).
- Mode of action (sing in bass).
- Measure of time or amount of something (carry buckets).
- Item Parameters (fist-sized).
- Combinations of persons and objects (brother and sister).
Prepositional
Corresponding questions "about whom?", "About what?". To recognize this case, you need to put the word "I think" to the noun. For example: I think (about whom?) About my beloved. Used with prepositions in, on, about, about, about, about. The singular has endings:
- 1 decline: -e, -and.
- 2 declension: -and.
- 3 declination: -and.
Plural plural cases end in: - ah, - ah.
Prepositions used with nouns in the prepositional case help determine what it means. Namely:
- Action object (think of a girl).
- Scene, state (sit on the chair).
- Time after performing some action (on arrival).
Additional cases
In Russian, in addition to the six main cases,there are several forms that have a controversial status, close to the case. They are also called cases of nouns, since they are intended exclusively for their declension. These include: the second genitive (partitive or quantitative-separative), the second prepositional (locative, local), the second accusative (transversal, inclusive, collective), the vocative form (vocative), countable, wait, and deprived. A feature of these forms is that each of them is found in a limited circle of words. In addition, they can exist in certain context. We will study these cases a little. Examples will help us to better understand them.
The second genitive case is forthe declensions of some masculine words in the singular relating to the second declension: a cup of tea, a spoonful of sugar. The end of this case, namely “-y,” is more often used colloquially and is not mandatory (you can talk bag of sugar or bag of sugar). The exceptions are the individual cases: drink some tea. Quite a lot of masculine nouns are not used in the form of a partitive: ice cube, a piece of bread.
The second prepositional declension has special endings of the group of nouns, in the singular, of the masculine gender. A death case is used, for example, in such words: on the shore, in the closet, in battle. Also, the locative is characterized by the transfer of the emphasis on the ending of certain 3rd-declensional nouns of a female gender and singular: in silence, aground, in the furnace.
The second accusative case is found with some verbs (sign up, ask, choose, go, get ready, break out, tag and others) after the preposition "in". In addition, its endings are the same as in the nominative plural: (enroll in pilots).
The greedy case almost coincides with the genitive, but it can be distinguished due to the declination of some words with the same grammatical form in the form of accusative case: wait (for whom? what?) telegrams and wait (whom? what?) brother.
The calculating case is slightly different from the genitive case and is used when counting: two steps, three messes.
The vocative case is almost identical to the nominative form, but differs in the formation of an independent turn of speech, similar to interjection: Wan, Mash, Sing, Tan. That is, it is more commonly used colloquially to refer to the interlocutor.
The deprivative case is a type of accusative case; however, it is used only with negation in the verb: not to be right not to know the truth.
How many cases in Russian are wearingextra character? According to our calculations, they were seven. But the most interesting thing is that some linguists consider only two complete cases: local (second prepositional) and vicious (second accusative). Others argue that the waiting case also has some meaning. But since the extraordinary and second genitive cases can very often be replaced by the genitive, they can only be called variants of the genitive form of declension. Calling and counting are also often not considered a case. In the first case, it is just a noun in the nominative case, and in the second - a noun derived from an adjective.
Let's sum up the results
After reading the above information, you cananswer the question of how many cases in Russian. So, in school, we study the six major cases. They are used daily for any type of communication: conversation, correspondence, etc. But, apart from them, there are seven more forms of declension, which occur mainly in colloquial speech. How many cases do you get? We can safely say that they are thirteen. Considering that additional forms of declension are variants of the main ones, they are not offered for study at school to simplify the educational process. But you can offer familiarization with them in the out-of-class time for common development.
