< Grammar 6—Abbreviated Case Charts
< Grammar 6—Abbreviated Case Charts
The case tables in textbooks often make it look like nouns are declined in about ten different ways. Happily this appearance is deceptive. There are really only three main ways of declining nouns with only slight variations to account for hard and soft vowels and for the question of whether a noun is animate or not. Here are case tables in which we attempt to make this clear.
| Case |
First Declension (Masculine or Neuter) |
Second Declension (Generally Feminine) |
Third Declension (Always Feminine) |
| Nominative | do nothing | do nothing | do nothing |
| Accusative | do nothing for inanimate, genitive rule for animate | append -у | do nothing |
| Genitive | append -а | append -ы |
append -ы which becomes -и |
| Prepositional | append -е | append -е | |
| Dative | append -у | append -е | |
| Instrumental | append -ом | append -ой | append -ю (-ь not absorbed) |
| Case |
First Declension Not Ending in -ь |
Second Declension |
Third Declension and First Ending in -ь |
| Nominative | append -ы | ||
| Accusative | append -ы for inanimate, genitive rule for animate | ||
| Genitive | append -ов | lop off -а | append -ой (becomes -ей) |
| Prepositional | append -ах | ||
| Dative | append -ам | ||
| Instrumental | append -ами | ||
| Singular | Plural | |||
| Case | Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | |
| Nominative |
-ый -о́й |
-ое | -ая | -ые |
| Accusative | -ую | |||
| Genitive | -ого |
-ой |
-ых | |
| Prepositional | -ом | |||
| Dative | -ому | -ым | ||
| Instrumental | -ым | -ыми | ||
To achieve the same results as with a 'full' declension table, you must understand that each soft vowel is the equivalent of a corresponding hard vowel but with softness added in front of it. These tables illustrate the principle:
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Rule 1: When a declension rule requires you to add a hard vowel to the end of a word which ends in -й or -ь, you should combine the vowel with the -й or -ь to make a single soft vowel. For example:
словарь + а = словаря
But: театр + а = театра
Rule 2: If a declension rule requires you to add a hard vowel to the end of a word which ends in a soft vowel, the the existing vowel disappears, but its softness says behind to make the new vowel soft. For example:
море + а = моря
Rule 3: Where a conjugation rule requires you to remove a final vowel (such as а or я) and that vowel is soft, you should remove only the hard part leaving a -й or -ь to represent the soft part. Leave -й after a vowel and -ь after a consonant. For example:
копия - а = копий
конюшня - а = конюшнь
кастрюля - а = кастрюль
баня - а = бань
But: газета - а = газет
Exception: After г, к, х, ш, щ, ж, ч write и never ы, no matter what the above rules would otherwise require. For example:
водка + ы = водки